| Due to its unique material properties,dielectric elastomers have great application prospects in the field of wave energy power generation.Traditional wave energy generators are mostly based on rigid structures to capture and convert energy,which has common problems such as high cost,poor adaptability and controllability,and difficult maintenance.This study constructs a tubular wave energy generator structure based on dielectric elastomers,it is composed of flexible carrier tube and dielectric elastomer power generation rings.The carrier tube acts as a wave energy capture device,which deforms under the action of waves and converts the wave energy into mechanical energy.The deformation of the carrier tube under the action of waves involves the interaction of multiple disciplines such as fluid mechanics,materials science and kinematics.At present,there is still a lack of mature theoretical support for the design of this generator.This study conducts research on it from two levels of mathematical model and simulation,and explores the influencing factors of the deformation of the carrier tube.The main research contents are as follows:(1)A tubular wave energy generator structure is proposed,the coupling control equations of the fluid in the carrier tube,the fluid outside the tube and the change of the tube wall are established,and it is discretized and solved using an implicit difference scheme.Then it analyzes the advantages of the finite element method and determines the theory involved in the numerical simulation.(2)This study uses Fluent to establish a numerical water tank and simulating numerical waves,loads the wave load into the Transient Structural,and carrys out the simulation simulation of the carrier tube deformation on the platform of Ansys workbench.The obtained deformation law of the carrier tube is compared with the experiment to analyze the error and verify the correctness of the numerical simulation method.(3)This study builds a tensile test bench,and through the material selection experiment,selects and determines the silicone material parameters that best match the tensile properties of the dielectric elastomer,it is as the carrier tube constitutive model.Based on thedetermined numerical simulation method,six simulation models are established under four variables of different tube diameter,tube length,wave height and wave length to explore the influence on the deformation of the carrier tube.The results show:(1)The deformation of the carrier tube is radial,the middle section is larger,and the expansion amount changes with time like a trigonometric function;(2)The simulation and experimental deformation rules are relatively close;(3)The tensile properties of silicone with a hardness of 30 degrees best match the dielectric elastomer film;(4)The length of the carrier tube and the wave wavelength have a greater influence on the expansion and deformation law,the diameter of the carrier tube has a smaller effect on the two,and the wave height only affects the expansion.The above conclusion proves the relative accuracy of the proposed deformation model of the carrier tube,provides a new idea for the numerical simulation of the flexible transverse tube,and can provide a reference for the further research of the wave energy generator based on DE. |
