Standing wave tube electro active polymer wave energy converter

Jean, Philippe; Wattez, Ambroise; Ardoise, Guillaume; Mélis, Cécile; Kessel, Rick van; Fourmon, A.; Barrabino, E.; Heemskerk, Jan W T; Queau, J. P.

doi:10.1117/12.934222

Cited by 85 publications

(96 citation statements)

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“…d) Dielectric elastomer-based wave energy converter from the company SBM offshore. From [18], c 2012 SPIE. Reproduced with permission.…”

Section: Stretchable Electrodes For Soft Machines and Conformable Elementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, for large-scale devices, minimizing the Joules losses becomes important. The company SBM Offshore 6 is developing wave energy converters in the form of long (target: 400 m) tubes in which a travelling wave creates a local deformation [18]. The active sections of the tube consists of a long (150 m) band of Danfoss' corrugated material (c.f.…”

Section: Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…responding with a mechanical energy output to an electrical input), but it can also function as energy generator, using the change in capacitance to transform mechanical deformation into electrical energy. Prototypes of dielectric elastomer generators (DEG) of different sizes have been built, from a small device integrated to a shoe heel, to large actuators mounted on a buoys for energy harvesting from ocean waves [18,104,105].…”

Section: Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Flexible and stretchable electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators

2012

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Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are flexible lightweight actuators that can generate strains of over 100%. They are used in applications ranging from haptic feedback (mm-sized devices), to cm-scale soft robots, to meter-long blimps. DEAs consist of an electrode-elastomer-electrode stack, placed on a frame. Applying a voltage between the electrodes electrostatically compresses the elastomer, which deforms in-plane or out-of plane depending on design. Since the electrodes are bonded to the elastomer, they must reliably sustain repeated very large deformations while remaining conductive, and without significantly adding to the stiffness of the soft elastomer. The electrodes are required for electrostatic actuation, but also enable resistive and capacitive sensing of the strain, leading to self-sensing actuators. This review compares the different technologies used to make compliant electrodes for DEAs in terms of: impact on DEA device performance (speed, efficiency, maximum strain), manufacturability, miniaturization, the integration of self-sensing and selfswitching, and compatibility with low-voltage operation. While graphite and carbon black have been the most widely used technique in research environments, alternative methods are emerging which combine compliance, conduction at over 100% strain with better conductivity and/or ease of patternability, including microfabrication-based approaches for compliant metal thin-films, metal-polymer nano-composites, nanoparticle implantation, and reel-to-reel production of µm-scale patterned thin films on elastomers. Such electrodes are key to miniaturization, low-voltage operation, and widespread commercialization of DEAs.

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“…d) Dielectric elastomer-based wave energy converter from the company SBM offshore. From [18], c 2012 SPIE. Reproduced with permission.…”

Section: Stretchable Electrodes For Soft Machines and Conformable Elementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Energy Harvestingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Flexible and stretchable electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators

2012

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“…In their case, the source of strain is an external mechanical deformation which is not limited by breakdown or EMI, and can therefore be much larger than the stretch range that the NERD setup can provide. Consequently, electrodes that appear to show no degradation after being tested with the NERD setup should be further evaluated by different test methods if they are intended to be used in applications that require a large stretch, such as wave energy converters for example [35][36][37] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the degradation of compliant electrodes for soft actuators

Rosset

Saint-Aubin

Poulin

et al. 2017

Review of Scientific Instruments

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We present an automated system to measure the degradation of compliant electrodes used in dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) over millions of cycles. Electrodes for DEAs generally experience biaxial linear strains of more than 10 %. The decrease in electrode conductivity induced by this repeated fast mechanical deformation impacts the bandwidth of the actuator and its strain homogeneity. Changes in the electrode mechanical properties lead to reduced actuation strain. Rather than using an external actuator to periodically deform the electrodes, our measurement method consists of measuring the properties of an electrode in an expanding circle DEA. A programmable high voltage power supply drives the actuator with a square signal up to 1 kHz, periodically actuating the DEA, and thus stretching the electrodes. The DEA strain is monitored with a USB camera while the resistance of the ground electrode is measured with a multimeter. The system can be used for any type of electrode. We validated the test setup by characterising a carbon black/silicone composite that we commonly use as compliant electrode. Although the composite is well-suited for tens of millions of cycles of actuation below 5 %, we observe important degradation for higher deformations. When activated at 20 % radial strain, the electrodes suffer from important damage after a few thousand cycles, and an inhomogeneous actuation is observed, with the strain localised in a sub-region of the actuator only.

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“…A key benefit of DEG is that they can harvest from extremely low frequency motion (e.g. the swaying of a tree branch [8] and ocean waves [9][10][11]) and by virtue of their softness can obtain energy from every-day human motions unobtrusively [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dielectric elastomer generators that stack up

McKay¹,

Rosset²,

Anderson³

et al. 2014

Smart Mater. Struct.

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This paper reports the design, fabrication, and testing of a soft dielectric elastomer power generator with a volume of less than 1 cm 3 . The generator is well suited to harvest energy from ambient and from human body motion as it can harvest from low frequency (sub-Hz) motions, and is compact and lightweight. Dielectric elastomers are highly stretchable variable capacitors. Electrical energy is produced when the deformation of a stretched, charged dielectric elastomer is relaxed; like-charges are compressed together and opposite-charges are pushed apart, resulting in an increased voltage. This technology provides an opportunity to produce soft, high energy density generators with unparalleled robustness. Two major issues block this goal: current configurations require rigid frames that maintain the dielectric elastomer in a prestretched state, and high energy densities have come at the expense of short lifetime. This paper presents a selfsupporting stacked generator configuration which does not require rigid frames. The generator consists of 48 generator films stacked on top of each other, resulting in a structure that fits within an 11 mm diameter footprint while containing enough active material to produce useful power. To ensure sustainable power production, we also present a mathematical model for designing the electronic control of the generator which optimizes energy production while limiting the electrical stress on the generator below failure limits. When cyclically compressed at 1.6 Hz, our generator produced 1.8 mW of power, which is sufficient for many low-power wireless sensor nodes. This performance compares favorably with similarly scaled electromagnetic, piezoelectric, and electrostatic generators. The generator's small form factor and ability to harvest useful energy from low frequency motions such as tree swaying or shoe impact provides an opportunity to deliver power to remote wireless sensor nodes or to distributed points in the human body without the need for costly periodic battery replacement.

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Standing wave tube electro active polymer wave energy converter

Cited by 85 publications

References 0 publications

Flexible and stretchable electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators

Flexible and stretchable electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators

Assessing the degradation of compliant electrodes for soft actuators

Dielectric elastomer generators that stack up

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