Modelling and testing of a wave energy converter based on dielectric elastomer generators

Moretti, Giacomo; Papini, Gastone Pietro Rosati; Daniele, Luca; Forehand, David; Ingram, David; Vertechy, Rocco; Fontana, Marco

doi:10.1098/rspa.2018.0566

Cited by 52 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This topology has been largely investigated due to its simplicity (e.g., there are no moving parts but the DEG membrane) and its ability to reach large area strains, close to the equibiaxial condition, over a large portion of the electrodes surface. [18,[46][47][48] Other DEG topologies have been investigated in addition to those presented here. These include, among others: generators which exploit a fluid's pressure to generate a bubble-like expansion of a tubular DEG membrane; [49] longitudinally stretched roll (or tube) DEG; [23,50] and vibro-impact topologies, in which planar DEG membranes are deformed out-of-plane by impact with a vibrating bluff body.…”

Section: Topologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the special case in which the DEG geometrical configuration is described by a single degree of freedom (DoF) through a generalized coordinate q, the DEG response is described by the following global equation [48]…”

Section: Stretch Capacitance Generation Factormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[49] To date, experimental demonstration of DEGS-based energy scavenging from ambient and renewable energy sources has been provided via scaled laboratory prototypes (up to roughly 10 W of power). [48,49,140] Several theoretical estimates and numerical simulations have been carried out, which suggest that large-scale energy harvesting from ambient sources (wind and waves) is in principle feasible, [18,144] with bounds that are only due to current technological restrictions (e.g., manufacturing process and electronics upscaling).…”

Section: Energy Harvesting From Ambient Sources and Renewable Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[48] Finally, small-scale prototypes were built and tested in wave tank basins, subject to artificial waves with scaled frequency and amplitude. [48,73,141] Figure 18. Overview on wave energy harvesting with DEGs.…”

Section: Wave Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two main wave tank campaigns were carried out on fully functional OWC prototypes subject to artificial waves at a scale of 1:40/1:30. [48,73] VHB acrylic was selected as the DE material for these tests, as it allows simple manufacturing of decimeterscale DEGs (DEGs with prestretched diameters up to 390 mm were deployed). The prototypes featured resonant behavior within the test wave frequency range.…”

Section: Wave Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of Dielectric Elastomer Generator Systems

Moretti

Rosset

Vertechy

et al. 2020

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Dielectric elastomer generator systems (DEGSs) are a class of electrostatic softtransducers capable of converting oscillating mechanical power from different sources into usable electricity. Over the past years, a diversity of DEGSs has been conceived, integrated, and tested featuring diverse topologies and implementation characteristics tailored on different applications. Herein, the recent advances on DEGSs are reviewed and illustrated in terms of design of hardware architectures, power electronics, and control, with reference to the different application targets, including large-scale systems such as ocean wave energy converters, and small-scale systems such as human motion or ambient vibration energy harvesters. Finally, challenges and perspectives for the advancement of DEGSs are identified and discussed.

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Section: Topologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stretch Capacitance Generation Factormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Energy Harvesting From Ambient Sources and Renewable Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wave Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wave Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of Dielectric Elastomer Generator Systems

Moretti

Rosset

Vertechy

et al. 2020

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Review of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators and Their Applications in Soft Robots

Guo

Liu

et al. 2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

151

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Robots play an increasingly important role in industrial production and daily life. Traditional robots are mostly made of hard materials, such as metal and plastic. Although rigidity of the material enables the traditional robot to perform tasks that are difficult for humans, for instance, carrying heavy objects, it also limits its adaptability. In nature, animals and plants are mostly made of soft materials, which make them have very high compliance and realize a variety of unimaginable actions. Similar to natural creatures, soft robots are usually composed of soft stimuli-responsive materials, which make them have good adaptability and compliance, and can achieve large deformation.Triggered by external stimuli, such as electric fields, magnetic fields, heat, and light, these soft stimuli-responsive materials can deform in a specific direction. The soft stimuli-responsive materials commonly used in soft robots include electroactive polymers (EAP), [1][2][3] hydrogels, [4][5][6][7] magnetic materials, [8][9][10] shape memory polymers (SMP), [11][12][13] shape memory alloys (SMA), [14,15] liquid crystal elastomers (LCE), [16][17][18] and so on. In addition, other actuation methods, such as pneumatic inflation and [19] electrostatic, [20,21] are also widely used in soft robots. To have an overview of different actuation methods, their performances with the maximum values are shown in Table 1. Although these maximum values were obtained from different actuators for each actuation method, they still demonstrate the potential upper limit.Dielectric elastomer (DE) is a typical EAP, which can generate significant deformation under the action of an external electric field. Thanks to its characteristics, such as large deformation, [22,23] fast response, [24,25] low elastic modulus, [2] high energy density, [26,27] light weight, [28,29] and low cost, [28] DE has the reputation of artificial muscles and has become one of the most promising materials in soft robots. [30][31][32][33][34] In this Review, we concentrate on the recent progresses of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) and their application in soft robots. In Section 2, we first introduce the working principle of DEAs, followed by the DE materials and compliant electrodes. Then, various DEAs with different designs are introduced. In Section 3, the application of DEAs in soft robots is divided into seven categories. Some recent highlights are described and discussed in detail, especially those with biological inspiration. We summarize some of the challenges in Section 4 and this is followed with the conclusion in Section 5. Dielectric Elastomer Actuators Working PrincipleGenerally, the structure of a DEA is similar to a sandwich, consisting of a DE membrane, where both surfaces are coated with compliant electrodes, as shown in Figure 1a. Once the compliant electrodes are subjected to voltage, an electric field will be generated in the membrane. The induced Maxwell stress causes the membrane to expand its area and contract its thickness. Based on the mechanism of ...

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Modelling of Homogeneous and Composite Non-linear Electro-Elastic Elastomers

Gei

2024

CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences

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Modelling and testing of a wave energy converter based on dielectric elastomer generators

Cited by 52 publications

References 35 publications

A Review of Dielectric Elastomer Generator Systems

A Review of Dielectric Elastomer Generator Systems

Review of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators and Their Applications in Soft Robots

Modelling of Homogeneous and Composite Non-linear Electro-Elastic Elastomers

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