Modeling and experimental investigation on dielectric electro-active polymer generator

Dielectric electro-active polymers (DEAP) have been attracted for the energy harvesting application due to its low cost, lightweight and flexible deformation capability. This paper presents a validated model and experimental investigation on energy conversion of a typical DEAP generator. Firstly, a dynamics model based on Mooney-Rivlin proposition is developed to describe the strain-force relationship of DEAP material. Then, the effect of charging voltages and energy conversion are also taken into account. In addition, identification processes are done separately for stretching and relaxing strokes using an adaptive PSO scheme to find best material parameters for the model. This makes the model be available to describe the sinusoidal strain forms in practical conditions. The validated model is then employed in investigating input mechanical energy, return energy and conversion energy for the DEAP generator. Experimental evaluations show that the developed model can describe the behavior of DEAP material accurately. Finally, analyses based on the energy conversion demonstrate the abilities of DEAP material as wave energy converter.