scholarly journals Development of Smart Shoes Using Piezoelectric Material

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Affa Rozana Abdul Rashid ◽  
Nur Insyierah Md Sarif ◽  
Khadijah Ismail

The consumption of low-power electronic devices has increased rapidly, where almost all applications use power electronic devices. Due to the increase in portable electronic devices’ energy consumption, the piezoelectric material is proposed as one of the alternatives of the significant alternative energy harvesters. This study aims to create a prototype of “Smart Shoes” that can generate electricity using three different designs embedded by piezoelectric materials: ceramic, polymer, and a combination of both piezoelectric materials. The basic principle for smart shoes’ prototype is based on the pressure produced from piezoelectric material converted from mechanical energy into electrical energy. The piezoelectric material was placed into the shoes’ sole, and the energy produced due to the pressure from walking, jogging, and jumping was measured. The energy generated was stored in a capacitor as piezoelectric material produced a small scale of energy harvesting. The highest energy generated was produced by ceramic piezoelectric material under jumping activity, which was 1.804 mJ. Polymer piezoelectric material produced very minimal energy, which was 55.618 mJ. The combination of both piezoelectric materials produced energy, which was 1.805 mJ from jumping activity.

Author(s):  
Alexander Wildgoose ◽  
Raghid Najjar ◽  
Jason Dittman ◽  
Harrison Hones ◽  
Emily Umbach ◽  
...  

The recent growth in portable electronics has sparked a demand for alternative energy sources. Energy harvesters that utilize piezoelectric materials are promising in capturing the mechanical energy from body movement to power portable electronics. This study investigated the characteristics of PVDF-HFP nanofibers created from traditional electrospinning and a novel technique called wet-stretching electrospinning. The solution was initially processed using the traditional method, flat-plate electrospinning, which resulted in a fiber network with random orientations. When performing electrical testing the fibers produced minimal voltage. The solution was then processed utilizing a novel wet-stretching electrospinning technique that allowed for fiber alignment and dynamic stretch ratios. Fibers that underwent this method produced higher voltages than fibers from the traditional electrospinning method. It was observed that fibers processed using the wet-stretching technique with different draw ratios (DR) such as 1 (DR 1) and 2.5 (DR 2.5) showed enhanced piezoelectric properties. This research suggests that the wet-stretched PVDF-HFP nanofibers are better suited for piezoelectric applications than traditionally electrospun nanofibers.


Author(s):  
Sunija Sukumaran ◽  
Samir Chatbouri ◽  
Didier Rouxel ◽  
Etienne Tisserand ◽  
Frédéric Thiebaud ◽  
...  

Energy harvesting is one of the most promising research areas to produce sustainable power sources from the ambient environment. Which found applications to attain the extensive lifetime self-powered operations of various devices such as MEMS wireless sensors, medical implants and wearable electronic devices. Piezoelectric nanogenerators can efficiently convert the vastly available mechanical energy into electrical energy to meet the requirements of low-powered electronic devices. Among the piezoelectric materials, poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers are extensively studied for the development of energy harvesting devices. Due to the outstanding properties such as high flexibility, ease of processing, long-term stability, biocompatibility makes them a promising candidate for piezoelectric generators. Nevertheless, compared to piezoceramic materials, PVDF based generators produce lower piezoresponse. Over the last decades, tremendous research activities have been reported to endorse the performance of PVDF based energy harvesters. This review article mainly focused on the recent progress in the performance improvement with processing methods, piezoelectric materials, different filler loading. The new developments and design structures will lead to an increase in piezoelectricity, alignment of dipoles, dielectric properties and subsequently enhance the output performance of the device. Electronic circuits play a vital role in energy harvesting to efficiently collect the developed charge from the device. Here, we have proposed a detailed description of the electronic circuits. Also, in the application part deals with the recent progress in flexible, biomedical and hybrid generators based on PVDF polymers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 248 ◽  
pp. 243-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Grzybek

Piezoelectric generator is a device used to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The basic element of the generator is made from piezoelectric material in which electrical energy is created as a result of deformations caused by reactions of mechanical structure of the generator. The amount of obtained electrical energy depends mainly on the piezoelectric material used, construction of the generator as well as a type of the source of mechanical energy. Construction of the generator is adjusted to the type of the source of mechanical energy. In order to obtain electrical energy from mechanical vibrations, the most frequent solution is beam structure. Effective electric energy generation by the piezoelectric generators depends on the following main factors: piezoelectric material used, generator structure, electronic system of the control and storage of energy, and the generator size. Generated by piezoelectric generators electric energy, can be used to power of miniaturized electronic devices with low power supply demand. The goal may be monitoring of the structure or industrial processes in hardly accessible places or/and in systems requiring the use of a big number of sensors. It will make cutting the operating costs possible and allow to create the eco-friendly technology without waste discharged batteries.


Author(s):  
Nathan S. Hosking ◽  
Zahra Sotoudeh

In this paper, we study fully coupled electromagnetic-elastic behaviors present in the structures of smart beams using variational asymptotic beam sections and geometrically exact fully intrinsic beam equations combined in a consistent theory. We present results for smart beams under various oscillatory loads in both the axial and transverse directions and calculate the corresponding deformations. Recovery equations are employed to construct the full 3D stress and strain components in order to complete a full stress / strain analysis. Smart materials change mechanical energy to electrical energy; therefore, changing the structural dynamic behavior of the structure and its stiffness matrix.


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):  
Wei Yang ◽  
Panagiotis Alevras ◽  
Shahrzad Towfighian

There is a growing interest to convert ambient mechanical energy to electrical energy by vibration energy harvesters. Realistic vibrations are random and spread over a large frequency range. Most energy harvesters are linear with narrow frequency bandwidth and show low performance, which led to creation of nonlinear harvesters that have larger bandwidth. This article presents a simulation study of a nonlinear energy harvester that contains two cantilever beams coupled by magnetic force. One of the cantilever beam is covered partially by piezoelectric material, while the other beam is normal to the first one and is used to create a variable potential energy function. The variable double-well potential function enables optimum conversion of the kinetic energy and thus larger output. The system is modeled by coupled Duffing oscillator equations. To represent the ambient vibrations, the response to Gaussian random input signal (generated by Shinozuka formula) is studied using power spectral density. The effects of different parameters on the system are also investigated. The results show that the double cantilever harvester has a threshold distance, where the harvester can perform optimally regardless of the excitation level. This observation is opposite to that of the conventional fixed magnet cantilever system where the optimal distance varies with the excitation level. Results of this study can be used to enhance energy efficiency of vibration energy harvesters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Hongjun Zhu ◽  
Tao Tang ◽  
Huohai Yang ◽  
Junlei Wang ◽  
Jinze Song ◽  
...  

Flow-induced vibration (FIV) is concerned in a broad range of engineering applications due to its resultant fatigue damage to structures. Nevertheless, such fluid-structure coupling process continuously extracts the kinetic energy from ambient fluid flow, presenting the conversion potential from the mechanical energy to electricity. As the air and water flows are widely encountered in nature, piezoelectric energy harvesters show the advantages in small-scale utilization and self-powered instruments. This paper briefly reviewed the way of energy collection by piezoelectric energy harvesters and the various measures proposed in the literature, which enhance the structural vibration response and hence improve the energy harvesting efficiency. Methods such as irregularity and alteration of cross-section of bluff body, utilization of wake flow and interference, modification and rearrangement of cantilever beams, and introduction of magnetic force are discussed. Finally, some open questions and suggestions are proposed for the future investigation of such renewable energy harvesting mode.


Author(s):  
Saeed Choopani ◽  
Mustafa Menderes Alyoruk

Abstract Piezoelectricity is a property of a material that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy or vice versa. It is known that group-III monochalcogenides, including GaS, GaSe, and InSe, show piezoelectricity in their monolayer form. Piezoelectric coefficients of these monolayers are the same order of magnitude as the previously discovered two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric materials such as boron nitride (BN) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayers. Considering a series of monolayer monochalcogenide structures including boron and aluminum (MX, M =B, Al, X = O, S, Se, Te), we design a series of derivative Janus structures (AlBX2, X = O, S, Se, Te). Ab-initio density functional theory (DFT) and density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) calculations are carried out systematically to predict their structural, electronic, electromechanical and phonon dispersion properties. The electronic band structure analysis indicate that all these 2D materials are semiconductors. The absence of imaginary phonon frequencies in phonon dispersion curves demonstrate that the systems are dynamically stable. In addition, this study shows that these materials exhibit outstanding piezoelectric properties. For AlBO2 monolayer with the relaxed-ion piezoelectric coefficients, d11=15.89(15.87) pm/V and d31=0.52(0.44) pm/V, the strongest piezoelectric properties were obtained. It has large in-plane and out-of-plane piezoelectric coefficients that are comparable to or larger than those of previously reported non-Janus monolayer structures such as MoS2 and GaSe, and also Janus monolayer structures including: In2SSe, Te2Se, MoSeTe, InSeO, SbTeI, and ZrSTe. These results, together with the fact that a lot of similar 2D systems have been synthesized so far, demonstrate the great potential of these materials in nanoscale electromechanical applications.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Zhang ◽  
Keith A. Williams ◽  
Zhengchao Xie

The power source with the limited life span has motivated the development of the energy harvesters that can scavenge the ambient environment energy and convert it into the electrical energy. With the coupled field characteristics of structure to electricity, piezoelectric energy harvesters are under consideration as a means of converting the mechanical energy to the electrical energy, with the goal of realizing completely self-powered sensor systems. In this paper, two previous models in the literatures for predicting the open-circuit and close-circuit voltages of a piezoelectric cantilever bimorph (PCB) energy harvester are first described, that is, the mechanical equivalent spring mass-damper model and the electrical equivalent circuit model. Then, the development of an enhanced coupled field model for the PCB energy harvester based on another previous model in the literature using a conservation of energy method is presented. Further, the laboratory experiments are carried out to evaluate the enhanced coupled field model and the other two previous models in the literatures. The comparison results show that the enhanced coupled field model can better predict the open-circuit and close-circuit voltages of the PCB energy harvester with a proof mass bonded at the free end of the structure in order to increase the energy-harvesting level of the system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 664-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norashikin Ahmad Kamal ◽  
Heekyung Park ◽  
Sangmin Shin

Small-scale hydropower is the generation of electrical power of 10 MW or less from the transformation of kinetic energy in flowing water to mechanical energy in a rotating turbine to electrical energy in a generator. The technology is especially useful when installed with a stormwater infrastructure in countries teeming with abundant rainfall. It is upon this concept that this study is being pursued to assess the implementation of microhydropower within a stormwater infrastructure. In order to achieve sustainability of development, small-scale hydropower should be beneficial in the implementation of stormwater infrastructure, especially in countries that have abundant rainfall. The aim of this study is to provide an assessment method for microhydropower implementation within a stormwater infrastructure. PCSWMM software was used to simulate the flowing water at a detention outlet. Modification of the current detention pond was made to optimise the quantity and quality of water supplied to the turbine. Two important parameters in the modification design are quantity and quality of storm water, which optimise the energy generated. The total power that can be harnessed from the design is theoretically from 500 W to 0.5 MW. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that the implementation of microhydropower within a stormwater infrastructure is technologically feasible.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document