Optimizing the energy harvesting performance of viscoelastic dielectric elastomer generators

Abstract eng:
As a promising technology for renewable energy harvesting, dielectric elastomer generators (DEGS) have drawn much attention from the research community due to their flexibility, light weigh, low cost, large deformation capacity, and most importantly, high energy density. However, their energy harvesting schemes are relatively complex and can be affected by various material properties and failure modes. Based on a particular harvesting scheme, this work presents a theoretical study on the performance of DEGs under equi-biaxial loading. From the simulation results, it is found that the material viscoelasticity exerts a strong effect on the harvested energy. The general framework developed in this paper is expected to provide guidance for the optimal design of DEGs.

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