Optimization of spiral-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester using Taguchi method

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (19) ◽  
pp. 4484-4491 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Tikani ◽  
L Torfenezhad ◽  
M Mousavi ◽  
S Ziaei-Rad

Nowadays, environmental energy resources, especially mechanical vibrations, have attracted the attention of researchers to provide energy for low-power electronic circuits. A common method for environmental mechanical energy harvesting involves using piezoelectric materials. In this study, a spiral multimode piezoelectric energy harvester was designed and fabricated. To achieve wide bandwidth in low frequencies (below 15 Hz), the first three resonance frequencies of the beam were designed to be close to each other. To do this, the five lengths of the substrate layer were optimized by the Taguchi method, using an L27 orthogonal array. Each experiment of the Taguchi method was then simulated in ANSYS software. Next, the optimum level of each design variable was obtained. A test rig was then constructed based on the optimum design values and some experimental investigations were conducted. A good correlation was observed between measured and the finite element results.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrius Čeponis ◽  
Dalius Mažeika

This paper presents results of numerical and experimental investigations related to the piezoelectric energy harvester that operates at multifrequency mode. Employment of such operation principle provides an opportunity for obtaining frequency response characteristics of the harvester with several resonant frequencies and in this way increasing efficiency of the harvester at a wide spectrum of excitation frequencies. The proposed design of the energy harvester consists of five cantilevers which forms square type system. Cross sections of the cantilevers are modified by periodical cylindrical gaps in order to increase strain value and to obtain more uniform strain distribution along the cantilevers. Cantilevers are rigidly connected to each other and compose an indissoluble system. Square type harvester has seismic masses at every corner. These masses are placed under specific angle in order to reduce natural frequencies of the system and to create additional rotation moments in the body of harvester. Results of the numerical investigation revealed that harvester has five resonance frequencies in the range from 15 Hz to 300 Hz. Numerical analysis of the harvester revealed that the highest open circuit voltage density is 19.85 mV/mm3. Moreover, density of the total electrical energy reached 27.5 μJ/mm3. Experimental investigation confirmed that frequency response characteristics are obtained during numerical investigation and showed that energy density of the whole system reached 30.8 μJ/mm3.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haileyesus Endeshaw ◽  
Fisseha Alemayehu ◽  
Stephen Ekwaro-Osire

Piezoelectric materials are being used to harvest mechanical energy from ambient vibration and convert it to electrical energy. They are mainly used to power miniature wireless sensors such as accelerometers, tachometers and proximity probes, which are commonly used for machine monitoring applications. However, exciting a piezoelectric cantilever with its resonance frequency for maximum power output remains to be a challenge. This is because the natural frequency of piezoelectric cantilevers is much higher than the common ambient vibrations. This study answers the research question: “Does a quick-return mechanism enhance the power output of a piezoelectric energy harvester?” For this purpose, analytical methods were employed to model a piezoelectric energy harvester mounted on a quick-return mechanism. The proposed mechanism was able to generate approximately 13.5mW of power, which is 35%–75% greater than the existing designs. A study on the working frequency range of the harvester for maximum power output was employed by varying the dimensional parameters of the quick-return mechanism. It was determined that by varying the dimensions of the quick return it is possible to harvest maximum power at a range of excitation frequencies. It was demonstrated that the system can effectively produce the maximum power when excited at frequencies ranging from 2rad/s to 46rad/s.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Huang ◽  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Keren Dai

Using the piezoelectric effect to harvest energy from surrounding vibrations is a promising alternative solution for powering small electronic devices such as wireless sensors and portable devices. A conventional piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) can only efficiently collect energy within a small range around the resonance frequency. To realize broadband vibration energy harvesting, the idea of multiple-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) PEH to realize multiple resonant frequencies within a certain range has been recently proposed and some preliminary research has validated its feasibility. Therefore, this paper proposed a multi-DOF wideband PEH based on the frequency interval shortening mechanism to realize five resonance frequencies close enough to each other. The PEH consists of five tip masses, two U-shaped cantilever beams and a straight beam, and tuning of the resonance frequencies is realized by specific parameter design. The electrical characteristics of the PEH are analyzed by simulation and experiment, validating that the PEH can effectively expand the operating bandwidth and collect vibration energy in the low frequency. Experimental results show that the PEH has five low-frequency resonant frequencies, which are 13, 15, 18, 21 and 24 Hz; under the action of 0.5 g acceleration, the maximum output power is 52.2, 49.4, 61.3, 39.2 and 32.1 μW, respectively. In view of the difference between the simulation and the experimental results, this paper conducted an error analysis and revealed that the material parameters and parasitic capacitance are important factors that affect the simulation results. Based on the analysis, the simulation is improved for better agreement with experiments.


Author(s):  
Prateek Asthana ◽  
Gargi Khanna

Piezoelectric energy harvesting refers to conversion of mechanical energy into usable electrical energy. In the modern connected world, wireless sensor nodes are scattered around the environment. These nodes are powered by batteries. Batteries require regular replacement, hence energy harvesters providing continuous autonomous power are used to power these sensor nodes. This work provides two different fixation modes for the resonant frequency for the two modes. Variation in geometric parameter and their effect on resonant frequency and output power have been analyzed. These harvesters capture a wide-band of ambient vibrations and convert them into usable electrical energy. To capture random ambient vibrations, the harvester used is a wide-band energy harvester based on conventional seesaw mechanism. The proposed structure operates on first two resonant frequencies in comparison to the conventional cantilever system working on first resonant frequency. Resonance frequency, as well as response to a varying input vibration frequency, is carried out, showing better performance of seesaw cantilever design. In this work, modeling of wide-band energy harvester with proof mass is being performed. Position of proof mass plays a key role in determining the resonant frequency of the harvester. Placing the proof mass near or away from fixed end results in increase and decrease in stress on the piezoelectric layer. Hence, to avoid the breaking of cantilever, the position of proof mass has been analyzed.


Author(s):  
Zhengbao Yang ◽  
Jean Zu

Energy harvesting from vibrations has become, in recent years, a recurring target of a quantity of research to achieve self-powered operation of low-power electronic devices. However, most of energy harvesters developed to date, regardless of different transduction mechanisms and various structures, are designed to capture vibration energy from single predetermined direction. To overcome the problem of the unidirectional sensitivity, we proposed a novel multi-directional nonlinear energy harvester using piezoelectric materials. The harvester consists of a flexural center (one PZT plate sandwiched by two bow-shaped aluminum plates) and a pair of elastic rods. Base vibration is amplified and transferred to the flexural center by the elastic rods and then converted to electrical energy via the piezoelectric effect. A prototype was fabricated and experimentally compared with traditional cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester. Following that, a nonlinear conditioning circuit (self-powered SSHI) was analyzed and adopted to improve the performance. Experimental results shows that the proposed energy harvester has the capability of generating power constantly when the excitation direction is changed in 360. It also exhibits a wide frequency bandwidth and a high power output which is further improved by the nonlinear circuit.


Author(s):  
Jingnan Zhao ◽  
Hao Wang

This study investigated the feasibility of applying piezoelectric energy harvesting technology in airfield pavements through mechanistic modeling and economic analysis. The energy harvesting performance of piezoelectric transducers was evaluated based on mechanical energy induced by multi-wheel aircraft loading on flexible airfield pavements. A three-dimensional finite element model was used to estimate the stress pulse and magnitude under moving aircraft tire loading. A stack piezoelectric transducer design was used to estimate the power output of a piezoelectric harvester embedded at different locations and depths in the pavement. The aircraft load and speed were found to be vital factors affecting the power output, along with the installation depth and horizontal locations of the energy harvester. On the other hand, the installation of the energy module had a negligible influence on the horizontal tensile strains at the bottom of the asphalt layer and compressive strains on the top of the subgrade. However, the near-surface pavement strains increased when the edge ribs of the tire were loaded on the energy module. Feasibility analysis results showed that the calculated levelized cost of electricity was high in general, although it varies depending on the airport traffic levels and the service life of the energy module. With the development of piezoelectric materials and technology, further evaluation of energy harvesting applications at airports needs to be conducted.


Author(s):  
Davide Castagnetti

Energy harvesting from ambient vibrations exploiting piezoelectric materials is an efficient solution for the development of self-sustainable electronic nodes. This work presents a simple and innovative piezoelectric energy harvester, intrinsically including dynamic magnification and inspired by fractal geometry. After an initial design step, computational analysis and experimental validation show a very good frequency response with five eigenfrequencies below 100 Hz. Even if the piezoelectric transducers were put only on a symmetric half of the top surface of the structure, the energy conversion is good for all the eigenfrequencies investigated.


Author(s):  
Shaofan Qi ◽  
Roger Shuttleworth ◽  
S. Olutunde Oyadiji

Energy harvesting is the process of converting low level ambient energy into usable electrical energy, so that remote electronic instruments can be powered without the need for batteries or other supplies. Piezoelectric material has the ability to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy, and cantilever type harvesters using this material are being intensely investigated. The typical single cantilever energy harvester design has a limited bandwidth, and is restricted in ability for converting environmental vibration occurring over a wide range of frequencies. A multiple cantilever piezoelectric generator that works over a range of frequencies, yet has only one Piezo element, is being investigated. The design and testing of this novel harvester is described.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yizhi Liu ◽  
Ziyu Huang ◽  
Yufei Gao

Topological optimization can realize the optimization of the mass distribution in the whole objective domain. Compared with morphology and size optimization, it has a higher degree of freedom. In this work, the three-dimensional topological optimization based on piezoelectric materials was discussed. Using the Optimality Criteria, topology optimization was applied to the cantilever piezoelectric transducer. The structure optimization was realized with the voltage and stiffness as the multi-objective function. The corresponding codes are given to show the process of optimization. With 70% of the origin volume, the bi-objective optimization increases the global stiffness by 50.9% and the voltage by 30%. As the iteration process shows, the results of bi-objective optimization prove the value of additive mass at the bottom of the cantilever. This lays the foundation for future piezoelectric transducer structural optimization. Using only stiffness as the objective, the final objective increases inconspicuously. Bi-objective optimization shows its superiority. There are quite a few papers that research the combination of stiffness and voltage, and research which studies three-dimensionality is a point of innovation. Furthermore, this is also the first time a piezoelectric topology code has been shared.


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