Modeling and performance analysis of duck-shaped triboelectric and electromagnetic generators for water wave energy harvesting

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a newly proposed technology for effectively converting mechanical energy into electricity. Triboelectric nanogenerator has shown a great potential for harvesting the clean and abundant energy of ocean waves. Recently, a duck-shaped TENG device has been proposed as a lightweight, cost-effective, highly stable, and efficient system for scavenging the existing energy in water waves. In this paper, a detailed investigation on the performance of the duck-shaped TENG is presented. Then, a comparative analysis between the TENG device and an equivalent electromagnetic generator (EMG) for wave energy harvesting is performed. The electric output characteristics of both techniques under various mechanical and electrical conditions are obtained. The analysis demonstrates that at a low operating frequency of 2.5 Hz, the TENG and EMG achieve the peak power density of 213.1 and 144.4 W/m3, respectively. The present paper provides guidance for design and optimization of hybrid TENG and EMG technology toward scavenging the blue energy.