Energy from dielectric elastomer wave generator

Project description

This project deals with the design, control and efficiency optimization of a high voltage bidirectional modular multilevel dc-dc power converter for the Dielectric Elastomer (DE) energy extraction application.

High voltage (10 kV) requirement limits the number of possible power electronic converter topologies that can be employed and adds the design complexity. Further, the efficiency of the dc-dc power converter is crucial as a large amount of energy is circulating in the system during harvesting cycles. Therefore, optimal control method has to be determined for the dc-dc converter as well as optimal harvesting cycle for each individual situation (DE stretching period and amplitude). Aiming at the high power density, loss minimization, functional integration, optimal thermal management and packaging are supposed to be the key content of the design optimization.

Main project goals are: 

• Identification of suitable power electronic converter topologies and selection of the best one based on application specifications,
• Finding converter operation modes and strategies to minimize overall conversion losses in the electronic power converter,
• Design and implementation of the power electronic converter, the proposed control strategy and validation of loss models and control approaches.