Power generation of dielectric elastomer generator with diaphragm configuration under triangular harvesting cycle

Abstract

The energy conversion performance of the dielectric elastomer generator (VHB 4905 acrylic elastomer, 3M) was investigated with the diaphragm configuration. Under the “triangular” harvesting scheme, the average energy density and energy conversion efficiency within one electromechanical cycle are measured to be about 102±5 mJ/g and 9.5±2.6 %, respectively, which are 75% and 98 % higher than that of the “quadrangular” harvesting scheme with the identical loading configuration. Large proportion of mechanical energy is dissipated via viscosity of the acrylic elastomer material, which implies that the energy conversion performance of dielectric elastomer generator is able to be considerably improved by adopting dielectric elastomer material with low viscoelasticity. For the diaphragm configuration, the capacitance of the dielectric elastomer film is proportional to the square of stretching displacement.