Universal Triboelectric Nanogenerator Simulation Based on Dynamic Finite Element Method Model

Abstract

The lack of a universal simulation method for triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) makes the device design and optimization difficult before experiment, which protracts the research and development process and hinders the landing of practical TENG applications. The existing electrostatic induction models for TENGs have limitations in simulating TENGs with complex geometries and their dynamic behaviors under practical movements due to the topology change issues. Here, a dynamic finite element method (FEM) model is proposed. The introduction of air buffer layers and the moving mesh method eliminates the topology change issues during practical movement and allows simulation of dynamic and time-varying behaviors of TENGs with complex 2D/3D geometries. Systematic investigations are carried out to optimize the air buffer thickness and mesh densities, and the optimized results show excellent consistency with the experimental data and results based on other existing methods. It also shows that a 3D disk-type rotating TENG can be simulated using the model, clearly demonstrating the capability and superiority of the dynamic FEM model. Moreover, the dynamic FEM model is used to optimize the shape of the tribo-material, which is used as a preliminary example to demonstrate the possibility of designing a TENG-based sensor.

Hybridizing Triboelectric and Thermomagnetic Effects: A Novel Low‐Grade Thermal Energy Harvesting Technology

“…As the Gd temperature increases and its magnetization decreases, gravity takes over and the Gd block falls on top of the TENG due to gravity, generating a positive peak voltage (as shown in Figure 2c). These results are further confirmed by numerical simulations of the electrical potential distribution of the triboelectric device using COMSOL Multiphysics [43] (Figure 2d; Video S1, Supporting Information). As the Gd/Cu set falls and the two triboelectric layers come together, the electrical potential varies (Figure 2d-I-IV) and a positive voltage is gradually generated between the top and bottom electrodes.…”

Toward autonomous wearable triboelectric systems integrated on textiles

“…Triboelectric investigations require a relevant knowledge of physical phenomena and theory ( Lu et al., 2019 ; Chen et al., 2020c ). Among those investigations the research of electrostatic induction is presented in ( Chen et al., 2020a ) and the authors suggested a novel universal numerical method capable of calculating dynamic behavior of TENGs with complex 2D/3D geometries under practical movements using finite element method (FEM) based moving mesh method and air buffer layers.…”

Modeling Particle-Doped Materials for Performance Improvement of Contact-Separation Triboelectric Nanogenerators

“…To prevent this, the best option is to numerically model TENG materials with varying particle concentrations as a guide to obtaining optimal values experimentally. In fact, recent developments in finite element simulations have opened up new possibilities to simulate TENG performance and guide its optimization [11,[37][38][39][40]. Numerical simulations are key not only to validating but also to predicting novel results when developing experimental setups or materials, decreasing the time spent in optimization.…”

“…Numerical simulations are key not only to validating but also to predicting novel results when developing experimental setups or materials, decreasing the time spent in optimization. Performing time-dependent numerical simulations conjugating the relative motion of two materials and the resulting electrostatic spatial distribution has been a challenge for TENGs that has only recently been surpassed [37].…”