Damage induced dissipation in electroactive polymer harvesters

Electromechanical harvesters based on dielectric electroactive polymers are promising devices for the production of electrical energy by the conversion of abundant sources of mechanical work available in Nature. However, severe limitations to the performance of these devices arise from various sources of dissipation and failure of the polymeric material. By making use of an energetic approach, we establish a direct and quantitative connection between the Mullins effect taking place in the polymeric material and the harvesting efficiency, showing the prominent role of rate-independent effects in the hysteretic behavior of electromechanical harvesters.