Performance investigation on dissipative dielectric elastomer generators with a triangular energy harvesting scheme

¹ State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, Xi'an Jiaotong University Xi'an, 710049, China
² School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University - Xi'an, 710049, China

^(a) hlchen@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (corresponding author)

Received: 11 October 2017
Accepted: 22 January 2018

Abstract

In this letter, a theoretical framework describing an energy harvesting cycle including the loss of tension (LT) process is proposed to investigate the energy harvesting performance of a dielectric elastomer generator (DEG) with a triangular energy harvesting scheme by considering material viscosity and leakage current. As the external force that is applied to the membrane decreases, the membrane is relaxed. When the external force decreases to zero, the condition is known as LT. Then the membrane undergoing LT can further relax, which is referred to as the LT process. The LT process is usually ignored in theoretical analysis but observed from energy harvesting experiments of DEGs. It is also studied how shrinking time and transfer capacitor affect the energy conversion of a DEG. The results indicate that energy density and conversion efficiency can be simultaneously improved by choosing appropriate shrinking time and transfer capacitor to optimize the energy harvesting cycle. The results and methods are expected to provide guidelines for the optimal design and assessment of DEGs.