Electroactive polymers for gaining sea power

Scherber, Benedikt; Grauer, Matthias; Köllnberger, Andreas

doi:10.1117/12.2009113

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Their intrinsically cyclical operation makes them particularly suited for the development of WEC [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Specifically, dielectric elastomer generators (DEG) are foreseen to replace the power take-off systems of traditional WEC, which are currently made of stiff, heavy, shock-sensitive, corrosion-sensitive, and costly (metallic and rare-earth) materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Model and Application of Inflating Circular Diaphragm Dielectric Elastomer Generators for Wave Energy Harvesting

Vertechy

Rosati

Fontana

2015

Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

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Dielectric elastomers (DE) are incompressible rubberlike solids whose electrical and structural responses are highly nonlinear and strongly coupled. Thanks to their coupled electromechanical response, intrinsic lightness, easy manufacturability, and low-cost, DEs are perfectly suited for the development of novel solid-state polymeric energy conversion units with capacitive nature and high-voltage operation, which are more resilient, lightweight, integrated, economic, and disposable than traditional generators based on conventional electromagnetic technology. Inflated circular diaphragm dielectric elastomer generators (ICD-DEG) are a special embodiment of polymeric transducer that can be used to convert pneumatic energy into usable electricity. Potential application of ICD-DEG is as power take-off system for wave energy converters (WEC) based on the oscillating water column (OWC) principle. This paper presents a reduced, yet accurate, dynamic model for ICD-DEG that features one kinematic degree of freedom and which accounts for DE visco-elasticity. The model is computationally simple and can be easily integrated into existing wave-to-wire models of OWCs to be used for fast analysis and real-time applications. For demonstration purposes, integration of the considered ICD-DEG model with a lumped-parameter hydrodynamic model of a realistic OWC is also presented along with a simulation case study

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Model and Application of Inflating Circular Diaphragm Dielectric Elastomer Generators for Wave Energy Harvesting

Vertechy

Rosati

Fontana

2015

Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

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“…In the last few years, a number of scientific works has been devoted to the study of DEGs for wave energy harvesting [8][9][10][11][12][13]. The Dutch company Single Buoy Mooring, for example, designed and built a prototype of flexible WEC, based on an elastomeric tube covered with ring-shaped DEGs and filled with pressurized sea water.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model-based design and optimization of a dielectric elastomer power take-off for oscillating wave surge energy converters

2015

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This paper investigates a new kind of device for producing electricity from the mechanical energy carried by ocean waves. The proposed machine, named poly-surge, is based on an existing sea-bottom hinged surging-flap concept that is equipped with a new power take-off (PTO) system based on a novel soft dielectric elastomer (DE) transducer. DEs are highly deformable polymeric materials that can be used to conceive electrostatic generators relying on capacitance variation. This kind of generators shows a number of features that well match the requirements of a wave energy converter since they are light-weight, low-cost, tolerant to salty/aggressive marine environment, noise-free during operation, and easy to manufacture and install. The considered poly-surge converter employs a parallelogram-shaped DE generator (PS-DEG) arranged in a dual agonist–antagonist configuration, which makes it possible to provide the flap with controllable bidirectional torques. In this paper, first a complete wave-to-wire multiphysics model of the overall system is described that assumes a simplified hydrodynamic response for the hinged-flap and an electro-hyperelastic behaviour of the PS-DEG. Second, a procedure is presented for the dimensioning and optimization of the PS-DEG for given sets of poly-surge flap dimensions, wave-climate information and constraints on both design and operational variables. Finally, simulation results are provided to demonstrate that the poly-surge can achieve quasi-optimal power production with a properly designed agonist–antagonist DEG PTO system

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“…More recently, the company SBM offshore developed a submerged tubular WEC, made by several ring-shaped DEGs, that has been tested in a wave-tank [2]. In addition, in the context of the EpoSil project [3], researchers from Bosch GmbH are studying new DEG solutions for ocean energy harvesting. In our previous works, we have proposed the concept of the Poly-OWC, that is a WEC based on an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) system equipped with a Circular Diaphragm DEG (CD-DEG) as Power-Take-Off (PTO) system [4], [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hardware in the loop simulation of a dielectric elastomer generator for oscillating water column wave energy converters

Moretti¹,

Rosati²,

Fontana³

et al. 2015

OCEANS 2015 - Genova

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This paper presents a small-scale test-bench that can be employed for the study of a new class of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converters (WECs) with Power Take Off (PTO) unit based on Dielectric Elastomer Generators (DEGs). Such a test-bench is designed to perform Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations of a small-scale DEG PTO prototype, that includes dedicated power and control electronics, with a real-time model that emulates OWC plant hydrodynamics.The paper illustrates the theoretical model that is assumed to describe the dynamics of the OWC plant, the hardware employed to replicate the response of the DEG PTO and the algorithms for the implementation of the closed-loop controller that performs the HIL simulations. Some preliminary tests are reported considering a floating OWC collector and a simple energyharvesting control law for the DEG PTO that is based on the measurement of the water level into the OWC structure.

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Electroactive polymers for gaining sea power

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Reduced Model and Application of Inflating Circular Diaphragm Dielectric Elastomer Generators for Wave Energy Harvesting

Reduced Model and Application of Inflating Circular Diaphragm Dielectric Elastomer Generators for Wave Energy Harvesting

Model-based design and optimization of a dielectric elastomer power take-off for oscillating wave surge energy converters

Hardware in the loop simulation of a dielectric elastomer generator for oscillating water column wave energy converters

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