Rosset Samuel, Anderson Iain A
Biomimetics Laboratory, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Front Robot AI. 2022 Feb 11;9:825148. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2022.825148. eCollection 2022.
Dielectric elastomer generators are soft structures capable of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. Here, we develop a theoretical model of the triangular harvesting cycle that enables the harvesting of most of the available electrical energy while not requiring active monitoring of the charge-voltage state on the DEG. This cycle is therefore interesting for small-scale generators for which a monitoring circuit would be energetically too costly. Our model enables the identification of the optimal value of the circuit's parameters such as storage capacitor and priming voltage values and show that for capacitance swings up to 6, 94% of the available electrical energy can be harvested. The model is experimentally validated with a conical generator, and the effect of non-constant deformation amplitudes is examined. Energy densities up to 46 mJcm were obtained for an electric field of 50 V µm.
介电弹性体发电机是能够将机械能转化为电能的柔性结构。在此，我们开发了一种三角形收获循环的理论模型，该模型能够收获大部分可用电能，同时无需对介电弹性体发电机上的电荷 - 电压状态进行主动监测。因此，对于监测电路在能量方面成本过高的小型发电机而言，这个循环很有意义。我们的模型能够确定电路参数的最佳值，如存储电容和预充电压值，并表明对于高达6的电容变化，可收获94%的可用电能。该模型通过一个锥形发电机进行了实验验证，并研究了非恒定变形幅度的影响。在50 V/μm的电场下，获得了高达46 mJ/cm³的能量密度。
