Energy harvesting cycles based on electro active polymers

Energy harvesting using dielectric elastomers is an interesting possibility to convert ambient energy into electric energy. Different small scale prototypes of energy harvesting devices, like SRIs wind- and wave-power generators have been developed so far. Nevertheless, the theoretical limits and practical implementation still have to be considered. The contribution of this paper is related to the calculation of the achievable energy gain. Different harvesting cycles are investigated theoretically and compared to each other. Based on the derived equations, several design rules for the material development are quoted. To analyze the various properties of dielectric elastomer generators an electromechanical test bench is realized. The design of an appropriate HV power electronics for energy harvesting devices is presented in the last section.