Scavenging Energy From Piezoelectric Materials for Wireless Sensor Applications

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Green ◽  
Karla M. Mossi ◽  
Robert G. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Wireless Sensors ◽  
Piezoelectric Materials ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Wireless Sensor ◽  
Battery Life ◽  
Sinusoidal Vibration ◽  
Sensor Applications ◽  
Energy Harvesting Devices

Wireless sensors are an emerging technology that has the potential to revolutionize the monitoring of simple and complex physical systems. Prior research has shown that one of the biggest issues with wireless sensors is power management. A wireless sensor is simply not cost effective unless it can maintain long battery life or harvest energy from another source. Piezoelectric materials are viable conversion mechanisms because of their inherent ability to covert vibrations to electrical energy. Currently a wide variety of piezoelectric materials are available and the appropriate choice for sensing, actuating, or harvesting energy depends on their characteristics and properties. This study focuses on evaluating and comparing three different types of piezoelectric materials as energy harvesting devices. The materials utilized consisted on PZT 5A, a single crystal PMN 32%PT, and a PZT 5A composite called Thunder. These materials were subjected to a steady sinusoidal vibration provided by a shaker at different power levels. Gain of the devices was measured at all levels as well as impedance in a range of frequencies was characterized. Results showed that the piezoelectric generator coefficient, g33, predicts the overall power output of the materials as verified by the experiments. These results constitute a baseline for an energy harvesting system that will become the front end of a wireless sensor network.

scholarly journals Pyroelectric Energy Conversion and Its Applications—Flexible Energy Harvesters and Sensors

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 2170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atul Thakre ◽  
Ajeet Kumar ◽  
Hyun-Cheol Song ◽  
Dae-Yong Jeong ◽  
Jungho Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Energy Scavenging ◽  
Hybrid Energy ◽  
Energy Harvesters ◽  
Sensor Applications ◽  
Sensing Applications

Among the various forms of natural energies, heat is the most prevalent and least harvested energy. Scavenging and detecting stray thermal energy for conversion into electrical energy can provide a cost-effective and reliable energy source for modern electrical appliances and sensor applications. Along with this, flexible devices have attracted considerable attention in scientific and industrial communities as wearable and implantable harvesters in addition to traditional thermal sensor applications. This review mainly discusses thermal energy conversion through pyroelectric phenomena in various lead-free as well as lead-based ceramics and polymers for flexible pyroelectric energy harvesting and sensor applications. The corresponding thermodynamic heat cycles and figures of merit of the pyroelectric materials for energy harvesting and heat sensing applications are also briefly discussed. Moreover, this study provides guidance on designing pyroelectric materials for flexible pyroelectric and hybrid energy harvesting.

A Torsion Based Shear Mode Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Wireless Sensor Modules

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Kulkarni ◽  
R. Ben-Mrad ◽  
S. Eswar Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Wireless Sensor ◽  
Shear Mode ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy ◽  
Mathematical Expressions ◽  
Self Powered ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Energy Harvesting Devices

Energy harvesting devices are growing in popularity for their ability to capture the ambient energy surrounding a system and convert it into usable electrical energy. With an increasing demand for portable electronics and wireless sensors in a number of sectors, energy harvesting has the potential to create self-powered sensor systems operating in inaccessible locations. This paper discusses a torsion based piezoelectric energy harvester that utilizes superior shear mode piezoelectric properties to harvest energy from vibrations. Mathematical expressions are used to determine optimized geometry configurations for the harvester. Using these expressions, a harvester design is presented for use with wireless sensor networks.

scholarly journals A Feasibility Study of Fabrication of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters on Commercially Available Aluminum Foil

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 2797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chongsei Yoon ◽  
Buil Jeon ◽  
Giwan Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Elevated Temperatures ◽  
Aluminum Foil ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Device Fabrication ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Plastic Substrate ◽  
Device Performance ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy ◽  
Energy Harvesting Devices

In this paper, we present zinc oxide (ZnO)-based flexible harvesting devices employing commercially available, cost-effective thin aluminum (Al) foils as substrates and conductive bottom electrodes. From the device fabrication point of view, Al-foils have a relatively high melting point, allowing for device processing and annealing treatments at elevated temperatures, which flexible plastic substrate materials cannot sustain because of their relatively low melting temperatures. Moreover, Al-foil is a highly cost-effective, commercially available material. In this work, we fabricated and characterized various kinds of multilayered thin-film energy harvesting devices, employing Al-foils in order to verify their device performance. The fabricated devices exhibited peak-to-peak output voltages ranging from 0.025 V to 0.140 V. These results suggest that it is feasible to employ Al-foils to fabricate energy-efficient energy harvesting devices at relatively high temperatures. It is anticipated that with further process optimization and device integration, device performance can be further improved.

Topology Optimization of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Devices Subjected to Stochastic Excitation

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheqi Lin ◽  
Hae Chang Gea ◽  
Shutian Liu
Keyword(s):  
Topology Optimization ◽  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Ambient Vibration ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy ◽  
Random Responses ◽  
Pseudo Excitation ◽  
Energy Harvesting Devices

Converting ambient vibration energy into electrical energy using piezoelectric energy harvester has attracted much interest in the past decades. In this paper, topology optimization is applied to design the optimal layout of the piezoelectric energy harvesting devices. The objective function is defined as to maximize the energy harvesting performance over a range of ambient vibration frequencies. Pseudo excitation method (PEM) is applied to analyze structural stationary random responses. Sensitivity analysis is derived by the adjoint method. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

How Much Energy Needs for Running Energy Harvesting Powered Wireless Sensor Node?

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariborz Entezami ◽  
Meiling Zhu ◽  
Christos Politis
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Power Consumption ◽  
Wireless Sensors ◽  
Sensor Node ◽  
Wireless Sensor ◽  
Wireless Sensor Node ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Limited Energy ◽  
Energy Needs

AbstractThere is a big challenge for research and industrial engineers to apply energy harvesting powered wireless sensors for practical applications. This is because wireless sensors is very power hungry while current energy harvesting systems can only harvest very limited energy from the ambient environment. In order for wireless sensors to be operated based on the limited energy harvested, understanding of power consumption of wireless sensors is the first task for implementation of energy harvesting powered wireless sensors systems. In this research an energy consumption model has been introduced for wireless sensor nodes and the power consumption in the life cycle of wireless communication sensors, consisting of JN5148 microcontroller and custom built sensors: a 3-axial accelerometer, a temperature sensor and a light sensor, has been studied. All measurements are based on a custom-built test bed. The power required carrying out a life cycle of wireless sensing and transmission is analysed. This paper describes how to analyse the current consumption of the system in active mode and thus power Consumption for sleeping and deployed sensors mode. The results show how much energy needs to run the energy harvesting powered wireless sensor node with JN5148 microcontroller.

scholarly journals Ultra low power mixer with out-of-band RF energy harvesting for wireless sensor networks applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Jie Jin ◽  
Xianming Wu ◽  
Zhijun Li
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Wireless Sensors ◽  
Supply Voltage ◽  
Battery Life ◽  
Ic Design ◽  
Rf Energy Harvesting ◽  
Ultra Low Power ◽  
Rf Energy ◽  
Cmos Rf

An ultra low power mixer with out-of-band radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting suitable for the wireless sensors network (WSN) application is proposed in this paper. The presented mixer is able to harvest the out-of-band RF energy and keep it working in ultra low power condition and extend the battery life of the WSN. The mixer is designed and simulated with Global Foundries ’ 0.18 μ m CMOS RF process, and it operates at 2.4GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. The Cadence IC Design Tools post-layout simulation results demonstrate that the proposed mixer consumes 248 μ W from a 1V supply voltage. Furthermore, the power consumption can be reduced to 120.8 μ W by the out-of-band RF energy harvesting rectifier.

scholarly journals Energy Harvesting From Torsional Vibrations Using a Nonlinear Oscillator

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Gunn ◽  
Panagiotis Alevras ◽  
Stephanos Theodossiades
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Wireless Sensors ◽  
Magnetic Levitation ◽  
Electronic Devices ◽  
Excitation Frequency ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Torsional Vibrations ◽  
Ambient Vibrations ◽  
Frequency Spectra

Harvesting ambient energy in a variety of systems and applications is a relatively recent trend, often referred to as Energy Harvesting. This can be typically achieved by harvesting energy (that would otherwise get wasted) through a physical process aiming to convert energy amounts to useful electrical energy. The harvested energy can be thermal, solar, wind, wave or kinetic energy, with the last class mainly referring to harvesting energy from vibrating components or structures. More often these oscillations are error states from the systems’ ideal function and through harvesting this potentially wasted energy could be reclaimed and become useful. Regardless of the generally low power output of the devices designed to harvest energy from vibrations, their use remains an attractive concept, which is mostly attributed to the growing use of modern electronic devices that exploit the low power requirements of semi-conductors. Energy Harvesting applications are often met in situations where a network of essential electronic devices, such as sensors in Structural Health Monitoring or bio-implantable devices, becomes hardly accessible. Harvesting ambient vibrations to power up these devices offers the option to utilize wireless sensors rendering these systems autonomous. Typical cases of systems, where ambient vibrations are ubiquitous are met in automotive and aerospace applications. Besides their potentially adverse impact, the energy carried by vibrating parts could be harvested, such that wireless sensors are powered. In this paper, a concept for harvesting torsional vibrations is proposed, based on a concept that employs magnetic levitation to establish a nonlinear Energy Harvester. Experience has shown that linear harvesters require resonant response to operate, often leading to low performance of the device when the excitation frequency deviates from resonance conditions. This is why harvesters with essential nonlinearity are preferred, since they are able to demonstrate high response levels over wider frequency regions. Herein, the conducted study aims to demonstrate the functionality of this concept for torsional systems. A mathematical model of the coupled nonlinear electromechanical system is established, seeking preliminary estimates of the harvested power. The compelling attribute of this system lies in the dependency of its linear natural frequency on the excitation frequency, which is found to cause multiple response peaks in the corresponding frequency spectra. Moreover, the selection of the static equilibrium of the levitating magnet is found to greatly influence the system’s response.

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting for Powering Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS)

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Majeed
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Piezoelectric Materials ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ◽  
Wireless Technology ◽  
Power Devices ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Low Power Electronics

Recent advancements in wireless technology and low power electronics such as micro electrome-chanical systems (MEMS), have created a surge of technical innovations in the eld of energy har-vesting. Piezoelectric materials, which operate on vibrations surrounding the system have becomehighly useful in terms of energy harvesting. Piezoelectricity is the ability to transform mechanicalstrain energy, mostly vibrations, to electrical energy, which can be used to power devices. This paperwill focus on energy harvesting by piezoelectricity and how it can be incorporated into various lowpower devices and explain the ability of piezoelectric materials to function as self-charging devicesthat can continuously supply power to a device and will not require any battery for future processes.

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