Energy harvesting performance of viscoelastic polyacrylic dielectric elastomers

Viscoelasticity dissipates the mechanical energy, leading to a reduction of energy conversion efficiency in both dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators and generators. By measuring the uniaxial tension-recovery experiments of very-high-bond-based DE, this article quantitatively presents the effect of viscoelasticity on energy harvesting performance of DE generators. By employing a DE strip energy harvester with constant surface charge, an analytical model is established to calculate the generated electrical energy and energy conversion efficiency. Numerical results demonstrate that viscoelasticity has a significant influence on DE energy harvesting performance.