Evaluation through finite element and numerical simulation of triboelectric polymer pairs in vertical contact mode

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators are shown a recent development in the energy field in various applications powering sensors to biomedical applications. The research development of tribogenerators is trending in the renewable energy area as it can harness waste mechanical energy due to the friction. Studies have shown various mathematical modeling done on the triboelectric principle based on Gauss electric field principle. Triboelectricity generation due to contact electrification depends on various factors that include the surface charge density, materials, the geometrical features of the tribo pairs, the mode of operation in terms of velocity etc. The significance of nanomaterials in the generation of triboelectricity is a research area where polymers have shown good results. In this study, a detailed computational and numerical simulation is done on selected pairs of triboelectric material combination chosen from the triboelectric series. Computational simulation is performed using Comsol Multiphysics to evaluate the output performance in terms of Voc and Qsc. Numerical simulation is performed using MatLab to evaluate the output performance current, power, voltage with respect to time for selected input parameters. The numerical performance of the device is validated by the experiments. The numerical method adopted will be a useful tool for determining the output characteristics of any triboelectric pairs.