Energy harvesting from a backpack with an auxetic dielectric elastomer generator. Bassani, G, Jean-Mistral, C., & Ruffaldi , E. In 7th international conference on Electromechanically Active Polymer (EAP) transducers and artificial muscles, June, 2017.
Energy harvesting from a backpack with an auxetic dielectric elastomer generator [link]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
The focus of this research is to develop a Dielectric Elastomer Generator (DEG) able to harvest energy from the stretch of the backpack straps without providing additional load as the present energy harvesting systems mostly do. After having proved that the mechanical energy available in the backpack straps is high enough to scavenge significant power (stretch 45% for 11Kg), different mechanical DEG configurations have been compared in term of energy output in order to evaluate which one allows to optimally exploit the stretch of the backpack straps during walking. Auxetic frames, converting the uniaxial stretch in a biaxial deformation of the DEG, have been proved to significantly increase the DEG performance (26.8uW at 1kV). A silicone based DEG with compliant electrodes has been fabricated and characterized. The use of the same matrix for all the DEG layers and rubber electrodes enables a great structural stability that allows the integration of such generators into real systems. The mechanical behaviour has been determined with stress-strain measurements performed on a uniaxial testing machine aided by a video extensometer inferring a maximal deformation of 73% and low viscous losses. The electrical behaviour has been evaluated performing dielectric spectroscopy over a frequency range of 10-1 to 105 Hz at 23°C. In the range typical of human motions (1-2Hz), the dielectric permittivity is slightly decreased and the loss tangent is halved comparing to the reference values.
@inproceedings{EuroEAP17,
author = {Bassani, G and Jean-Mistral, C. and Ruffaldi , E.},
title = {Energy harvesting from a backpack with an auxetic dielectric
elastomer generator},
roles={Bassani:funded},
booktitle = {7th international conference on
Electromechanically Active Polymer (EAP)
transducers and artificial muscles},
city={Cartagena,Spain},
day={6-7},
month={June},
abstract={The focus of this research is to develop a Dielectric Elastomer Generator (DEG)
able to harvest energy from the stretch of the backpack straps without providing
additional load as the present energy harvesting systems mostly do. After having
proved that the mechanical energy available in the backpack straps is high
enough to scavenge significant power (stretch 45% for 11Kg), different
mechanical DEG configurations have been compared in term of energy output in
order to evaluate which one allows to optimally exploit the stretch of the
backpack straps during walking. Auxetic frames, converting the uniaxial stretch
in a biaxial deformation of the DEG, have been proved to significantly increase
the DEG performance (26.8uW at 1kV). A silicone based DEG with compliant
electrodes has been fabricated and characterized. The use of the same matrix for
all the DEG layers and rubber electrodes enables a great structural stability that
allows the integration of such generators into real systems. The mechanical
behaviour has been determined with stress-strain measurements performed on a
uniaxial testing machine aided by a video extensometer inferring a maximal
deformation of 73% and low viscous losses. The electrical behaviour has been
evaluated performing dielectric spectroscopy over a frequency range of 10-1 to
105 Hz at 23°C. In the range typical of human motions (1-2Hz), the dielectric
permittivity is slightly decreased and the loss tangent is halved comparing to the
reference values.},
year = {2017},
pdf={2017_P_EuroEAP17.pdf},
howpresented={poster},
mtype={workshop},
url={http://www.euroeap.eu/index.php/euroeap-conference-home},
keywords={harvesting},
}

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