Harvest rotational energy from a novel dielectric elastomer generator with crank-connecting rod mechanisms

Rotational energy, which is abundant in our living and working environments, provides available sources for energy harvesting (EH) to support wireless sensors and wearable devices. In order to convert rotational energy into electrical one, a novel dielectric elastomer generator (DEG) with crank-connecting rod mechanisms is proposed and studied in this paper. The system structure is first introduced, and the system operation mechanism under rotations is elaborated with the system motion and energy harvesting processes being analyzed theoretically. Next, the theoretical analysis is verified experimentally by measuring the output voltages of a prototype of the proposed DEG system, thus making further numerical simulation results credible. Moreover, the system electrical responses under rotational excitation are presented through numerical simulations, and the influences of some key parameters, including the rotational velocity, the gear ratio, the system dimensional parameters and the initial angles, on the system EH performances are discussed. The simulated results show that the system EH performance can be enhanced by increasing the rotational velocity and gear ratio, and appropriately setting the system dimensional parameters and initial angles. This work also presents how to optimize the system parameters, thus providing some effective guidelines for the design and improvement of the proposed system in rotational EH. A further comparative study demonstrates the superiority of the proposed device in rotational EH.