scholarly journals Multimodal Hybrid Piezoelectric-Electromagnetic Insole Energy Harvester Using PVDF Generators

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Iqbal ◽  
Malik Muhammad Nauman ◽  
Farid Ullah Khan ◽  
Pg Emeroylariffion Abas ◽  
Quentin Cheok ◽  
...  

Harvesting biomechanical energy is a viable solution to sustainably powering wearable electronics for continuous health monitoring, remote sensing, and motion tracking. A hybrid insole energy harvester (HIEH), capable of harvesting energy from low-frequency walking step motion, to supply power to wearable sensors, has been reported in this paper. The multimodal and multi-degrees-of-freedom low frequency walking energy harvester has a lightweight of 33.2 g and occupies a small volume of 44.1 cm3. Experimentally, the HIEH exhibits six resonant frequencies, corresponding to the resonances of the intermediate square spiral planar spring at 9.7, 41 Hz, 50 Hz, and 55 Hz, the Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) beam-I at 16.5 Hz and PVDF beam-II at 25 Hz. The upper and lower electromagnetic (EM) generators are capable of delivering peak powers of 58 µW and 51 µW under 0.6 g, by EM induction at 9.7 Hz, across optimum load resistances of 13.5 Ω and 16.5 Ω, respectively. Moreover, PVDF-I and PVDF-II generate root mean square (RMS) voltages of 3.34 V and 3.83 V across 9 MΩ load resistance, under 0.6 g base acceleration. As compared to individual harvesting units, the hybrid harvester performed much better, generated about 7 V open-circuit voltage and charged a 100 µF capacitor up to 2.9 V using a hand movement for about eight minutes, which is 30% more voltage than the standalone piezoelectric unit in the same amount of time. The designed HIEH can be a potential mobile source to sustainably power wearable electronics and wireless body sensors.

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 3380
Author(s):  
Yunjia Li ◽  
Xinyi Wang ◽  
Shuhan Zhang ◽  
Chenyuan Zhou ◽  
Dayong Qiao ◽  
...  

This paper presents a low-frequency electromagnetic vibrational energy harvester (EVEH) with two degrees of freedom and two resonant modes. The proposed EVEH is based on a disc magnet suspended in a pendulum fashion by a polymeric spring between two sets of polymer coil stacks. The fabricated EVEH is capable of harvesting vibration energy on two directions with an extended bandwidth. With a sinusoidal acceleration of ±1 g on Z direction, a peak-to-peak closed-circuit output voltage of 0.51 V (open-circuit voltage: 1 V), and an output power of 35.1 μW are achieved at the resonant frequency of 16 Hz. With a sinusoidal acceleration of ±1.5 g on X direction, a peak-to-peak output voltage of 0.14 V and power of 2.56 μW are achieved, at the resonant frequency of 20 Hz.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Bu ◽  
Xiaoming Wu ◽  
Xiaohong Wang ◽  
Litian Liu

This article presents the modeling, fabrication, and testing of liquid encapsulated energy harvester using polyvinylidene fluoride electrets. Unlike harvesters reported in previous literature, this liquid encapsulated energy harvester uses flowing liquid rather than conventional resonating structures to induce variable capacitance and is more suitable for low-frequency applications. Prototypes injected with three types of liquid ( N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, N, N-dimethylformamide, and glycerin) are tested in horizontal vibration and rotary motion mode, respectively. The results show that N, N-dimethylformamide–injected prototypes display the most desirable performance in horizontal vibration testing at 1–10 Hz due to high relative permittivity and low viscosity, with maximum output voltage of 2.32 V and power of 0.18 µW at 10 Hz. Glycerin-injected prototypes perform best at 0.1–1 Hz rotation due to effective movement and highest permittivity, with maximum output voltage of 11.46 V and power of 2.19 µW at 1 Hz.


Author(s):  
Jui-Ta Chien ◽  
Yung-Hsing Fu ◽  
Chao-Ting Chen ◽  
Shun-Chiu Lin ◽  
Yi-Chung Shu ◽  
...  

This paper proposes a broadband rotational energy harvesting setup by using micro piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH). When driven in different rotating speed, the PEH can output relatively high power which exhibits the phenomenon of frequency up-conversion transforming the low frequency of rotation into the high frequency of resonant vibration. It aims to power self-powered devices used in the applications, like smart tires, smart bearings, and health monitoring sensors on rotational machines. Through the excitation of the rotary magnetic repulsion, the cantilever beam presents periodically damped oscillation. Under the rotational excitation, the maximum output voltage and power of PEH with optimal impedance is 28.2 Vpp and 663 μW, respectively. The output performance of the same energy harvester driven in ordinary vibrational based excitation is compared with rotational oscillation under open circuit condition. The maximum output voltage under 2.5g acceleration level of vibration is 27.54 Vpp while the peak output voltage of 36.5 Vpp in rotational excitation (in 265 rpm).


Author(s):  
Muhammad Masood Ahmad ◽  
Farid Ullah Khan

This paper presents an electromagnetic energy harvester to extract low frequency and low acceleration vibration energy available in a bridge environment. The developed harvester is a multi-mode oscillator with dual electromagnetic transduction mechanisms. The harvester consists of two cantilever beams. The first cantilever beam is split into two equal pieces along its length and the second beam placed in between them coming back to the fixed end and attached at outer end to the first beam. This way instead of a long conventional cantilever beam a compact harvester is fabricated. Two magnets as proof masses are attached to each free end of the beam making it a two degree of freedom system (2-DOF). The magnets are positioned to oscillate inside hand wound coils during operation. An analytical model was developed and COMSOL multiphysics was used to simulate the mode shapes of the harvester. The mathematical model was simulated for open circuit voltage in MATLAB and showed closely matching results with the experimental values. The harvester is characterized in lab for its performance under sinusoidal vibrations at low frequency (3 Hz–15 Hz) and low acceleration (0.01–0.09 g) levels. The 2-DOF harvester has two resonant frequencies of 4.4 Hz and 5.5 Hz and a volume of 333 cm3. It produces maximum voltage of 0.6 V at first resonance on coil-1 and maximum voltage of 1.2 V on coil-2 at second resonance at 0.09 g. At acceleration of 0.09 g the harvester produced 2.51 mW at first resonant frequency and 10.7 mW at second resonance. Moreover, the AC output voltage of the harvester is rectified to DC voltage by a three-stage Cockcroft-Walton multiplier type circuit. The DC power output at 0.05 g was 0.939 mW at first resonance and 0.956 mW at second resonance while maximum voltages of 5.4 V on coil-1 and 4 V on coil-2 were produced.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 2766-2781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yipeng Wu ◽  
Hongli Ji ◽  
Jinhao Qiu ◽  
Weiqun Liu ◽  
Jinling Zhao

Frequency up-converting vibration energy harvester can bridge the gap between high-frequency response and low-frequency input, greatly increasing the efficiency of energy conversion. This article proposed a novel frequency up-converting energy harvester based on 1:3 internal resonance in 2 degree-of-freedom cubic nonlinear systems. The harvester consists of two asymmetric cantilevers corresponding to two vibration degrees-of-freedom. The ratio of cantilevers’ first-order resonances is (or close to) 1:3. When excited frequency matches the resonant frequency of the first assisting cantilever, 1:3 internal resonance of the harvester system occurs, leading to drastic vibration of the second generating cantilever at its resonance. The generated voltage frequency is then three times increased. Finally, simulated and experimental results clearly proved this frequency up-converting principle. In addition, the resonant frequency tuning and wideband behaviors of the harvester were also investigated, which increased the viability of the proposed harvester under the practical environment vibrations.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Iqbal ◽  
Malik Muhammad Nauman ◽  
Farid Ullah Khan ◽  
Emeroylariffion Abas ◽  
Quentin Cheok ◽  
...  

The current research in wearable electronics is trending towards miniaturization, portability, integration, and sustainability, with the harvesting of biomechanical energy seen as a promising route to improve the sustainability of these wearable electronics. Efforts have been made to prolong operational life of these harvesters, to overcome energy dissipation, lowering resonant frequency, attaining multi-resonant states as well as widening frequency bandwidth of these biomechanical energy harvesters. Herein, an electromagnetic insole energy harvester (EMIEH), capable of efficiently harvesting low-frequency biomechanical energy, has been designed, fabricated and experimentally tested. The core component in the device is the vibrating circular spiral spring, holding two magnets as the driving force on the central platform of the circular spiral spring, and just in-line with the upper and lower wound coils. It has been shown that the harvester exhibits higher sensitivity to low-frequency external vibrations than conventional cantilever-based designs, and hence allows low impact energy harvesting such as harvesting energy from walking, running and jogging. The experimentally-tested four resonant frequencies occurred at 8.9 Hz, 28 Hz, 50 Hz, and 51 Hz. At the first resonant frequency of 8.9 Hz under base acceleration of 0.6 g, the lower electromagnetic generator can deliver a peak power of 664.36 µW and an RMS voltage of 170 mV to a matching load resistance of 43.5 Ω. The upper electromagnetic generator can contribute an RMS voltage of 85 mV, corresponding to the peak power of 175 µW across 41 Ω under the same experimental condition. Finally, the harvester has been integrated into the shoe and it is able to charge a 100 µF capacitor up to 1 Volt for about 8 minutes foot movement. The result has remarkable significance in the development of wireless body monitoring sensors applications.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Irsyad Suhaimi ◽  
Anis Nurashikin Nordin ◽  
Aliza Aini Md Ralib ◽  
Lai Ming Lim ◽  
Zambri Samsudin

Aims: Recent advancements in sensing technology and wireless communications have accelerated the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) which promote the usage of wearable sensors. An emerging trend is to develop self-sustainable wearable devices, thus eliminating the necessity of the user to carry bulky batteries. In this work, the development of a flexible piezoelectric energy harvester that is capable of harvesting energy from low frequency vibrations is presented. The target application of this energy harvester is for usage in smart shoes. Objectives: The objectives of this research is to design, fabricate and test an energy harvester on PET substrate using Aluminum Zinc Oxide as its piezoelectric layer. Methods: The energy harvester was designed as a cantilever structure using PET/AZO/Ag layers in d33 mode which can generate large output voltages with small displacements. The electrodes were designed as an interdigitated structure in which two significant design parameters were chosen, namely the effect of gap between electrodes, g and number of interdigital electrodes (IDE) pairs, N to the output voltage and resonant frequency. Results: The sputtered AZO on PET showed c-axis orientation at 002 peak with 2 values of 34.45° which indicates piezoelectric behaviour. The silver IDE pairs were screen-printed on the AZO thin film. Functionality of the device as an energy harvester was demonstrated by testing it using a shaker. The energy harvester was capable of generating 0.867 Vrms output voltage when actuated at 49.6 Hz vibrations. Conclusion: This indicates that the AZO thin films with printed silver electrodes can be used as flexible, d33 energy harvesters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satish Rao Ganapathy ◽  
Hanim Salleh ◽  
Mohammad Khairul Azwan Azhar

AbstractThe demand for energy harvesting technologies has been increasing over the years that can be attributed to its significance to low power applications. One of the key problems associated with the available vibration-based harvester is the maximum peak power can only be achieved when the device frequency matches the source frequency to generate low usable power. Therefore, in this study, a magnetically-tunable hybrid piezoelectric-triboelectric energy harvester (MT-HPTEH) was designed and optimised. Four key design factors: mass placement, triboelectric surface area, extension length and magnetic stiffness were investigated and optimised. The voltage generation from piezoelectric and triboelectric mechanisms was determined individually to understand the effect of each design factor on the mechanisms. An output power of 659 µW at 180 kΩ at 44 Hz was obtained from the optimised MT-HPTEH with a theoretical–experimental discrepancy of less than 10%. The added magnetically-tunable feature enabled the harvester to work at the desired frequency range with an open circuit voltage between 7.800 and 20.314 V and a frequency range from 38 to 54 Hz. This MT-HPTEH can power at least six wireless sensor networks and can be used for low power applications such as RFID tags. Future work may include designing of energy-saving and sustainable harvester.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixuan Lin ◽  
Yuqiong Zhang ◽  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Meining Zhang ◽  
Dalong Li ◽  
...  

AbstractThe electroactive β-phase in Poly (vinylidene fluoride, PVDF) is the most desirable conformation due to its highest pyro- and piezoelectric properties, which make it feasible to be used as flexible sensors, wearable electronics, and energy harvesters etc. In this study, we successfully developed a method to obtain high-content β-phase PVDF films and nanofiber meshes by mechanical stretching and electric spinning. The phase transition process and pyro- and piezoelectric effects of stretched films and nanofiber meshes were characterized by monitoring the polarized light microscopy (PLM) images, outputting currents and open-circuit voltages respectively, which were proved to be closely related to stretching ratio (λ) and concentrations. This study could expand a new route for the easy fabrication and wide application of PVDF films or fibers in wearable electronics, sensors, and energy harvesting devices.


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