scholarly journals Geometrical Investigation of Piezoelectric Patches for Broadband Energy Harvesting in Non-Deterministic Composite Plates

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 7370
Author(s):  
Asan G. A. Muthalif ◽  
Abdelrahman Ali ◽  
Jamil Renno ◽  
Azni N. Wahid ◽  
Khairul A. M. Nor ◽  
...  

Mechanical energy is the most ubiquitous form of energy that can be harvested and converted into useful electrical power. For this reason, the piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs), with their inherent electromechanical coupling and high-power density, have been widely incorporated in many applications to generate power from ambient mechanical vibrations. However, one of the main challenges to the wider adoption of PEHs is how to optimize their design for maximum energy harvesting. In this paper, an investigation was conducted on the energy harvesting from seven piezoelectric patch shapes (differing in the number of edges) when attached to a non-deterministic laminated composite (single/double lamina) plate subjected to change in fiber orientation. The performance of the PEHs was examined through a coupled-field finite element (FE) model. The plate was simply supported, and its dynamics were randomized by attaching randomly distributed point masses on the plate surface in addition to applying randomly located time-harmonic point forces. The randomization of point masses and point force location on a thin plate produce non-deterministic response. The design optimization was performed by employing the ensemble-responses of the electrical potential developed across the electrodes of the piezoelectric patches. The results present the optimal fiber orientation and patch shape for maximum energy harvesting in the case of single and double lamina composite plates. The results show that the performance is optimal at 0° or 90° fiber orientation for single-lamina, and at 0°/0° and 0°/90° fiber orientations for double-lamina composites. For frequencies below 25 Hz, patches with a low number of edges exhibited a higher harvesting performance (triangular for single-lamina/quadrilateral for double-lamina). As for the broadband frequencies (above 25 Hz), the performance was optimal for the patches with a higher number of edges (dodecagonal for single-lamina/octagonal for double-lamina).

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (18) ◽  
pp. 3572-3581
Author(s):  
Suihan Liu ◽  
Ali Imani Azad ◽  
Rigoberto Burgueño

Piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibrations is well studied, but harvesting from quasi-static responses is not yet fully explored. The lack of attention is because quasi-static actions are much slower than the resonance frequency of piezoelectric oscillators to achieve optimal outputs; however, they can be a common mechanical energy resource: from large civil structure deformations to biomechanical motions. The recent advances in bio-micro-electro-mechanical systems and wireless sensor technologies are motivating the study of piezoelectric energy harvesting from quasi-static conditions for low-power budget devices. This article presents a new approach of using quasi-static deformations to generate electrical power through an axially compressed bilaterally constrained strip with an attached piezoelectric layer. A theoretical model was developed to predict the strain distribution of the strip’s buckled configuration for calculating the electrical energy generation. Results from an experimental investigation and finite element simulations are in good agreement with the theoretical study. Test results from a prototyped device showed that a peak output power of 1.33 μW/cm2 was generated, which can adequately provide power supply for low-power budget devices. And a parametric study was also conducted to provide design guidance on selecting the dimensions of a device based on the external embedding structure.


Author(s):  
Luã Guedes Costa ◽  
Luciana Loureiro da Silva Monteiro ◽  
Pedro Manuel Calas Lopes Pacheco ◽  
Marcelo Amorim Savi

Piezoelectric materials exhibit electromechanical coupling properties and have been gained importance over the last few decades due to their broad range of applications. Vibration-based energy harvesting systems have been proposed using the direct piezoelectric effect by converting mechanical into electrical energy. Although the great relevance of these systems, performance enhancement strategies are essential to improve the applicability of these system and have been studied substantially. This work addresses a numerical investigation of the influence of cubic polynomial nonlinearities in energy harvesting systems considering a bistable structure subjected to harmonic excitation. A deep parametric analysis is carried out employing nonlinear dynamics tools. Results show complex dynamical behaviors associated with the trigger of inter-well motion. Electrical power output and efficiency are monitored in order to evaluate the configurations associated with best system performances.


Author(s):  
Bugra Bayik ◽  
Amirreza Aghakhani ◽  
Ugur Aridogan ◽  
Ipek Basdogan

Vibration-based energy harvesting has drawn significant attention from different engineering disciplines over the last two decades. The studies in this research area have mostly concentrated on cantilevered piezoelectric beam harvesters under base excitations. As an alternative to beam arrangements, patch-based piezoelectric energy harvesters can be integrated on large plate-like structures such as panels of automotive, marine and aerospace applications to extract useful electrical power during their operation. In this paper, electroelastic finite element (FE) simulations of a patch-based piezoelectric energy harvester structurally integrated on a panel of a heavy duty vehicle are presented during different phases of operation. FE model of the panel together with a piezoceramic harvester patch is built using ANSYS software. The FE model takes into account coupled electromechanical dynamics and the fully-conductive electrode layers of the harvester patch. The vibration response of the panel as well as the voltage output of the harvester patch under operating conditions is simulated using the forces obtained from experimental measurements on the heavy duty vehicle. Excitation forces are calculated from operational acceleration measurements using matrix inversion method, which is a force identification technique. Two different operating conditions of the heavy duty vehicle are considered: stationary and moving on a test track while the engine was running. Using the excitation forces in the FE simulations, the electrical power generation of the harvester patch is predicted for a wide range of resistive loads. Electrical power outputs are then presented for short-circuit and open-circuit conditions. The numerical results show that the use of a harvester patch attached on a panel of a heavy duty vehicle generates reasonably well electrical power outputs.


Author(s):  
Christopher A. Howells

Piezoelectric materials can be used to convert oscillatory mechanical energy into electrical energy. This technology, together with innovative mechanical coupling designs, can form the basis for an energy harvesting solution for military and commercial systems. The US Army-CERDEC at Ft. Belvoir, VA and Continuum Photonics, Inc. in Billerica, MA completed a three year Science & Technology Objective (STO) research effort that focused on harvesting energy from physical exertion. The effort was aimed at investigating the concept of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting for supplying supplemental power for dismounted soldiers. This STO effort resulted in the development of four proof-of-concept Heel Strike Units where each unit is essentially a small electric generator that utilizes piezoelectric elements to convert mechanical motion into electrical power in the form factor of the heel of a soldier’s combat boot. The Power Technology Branch has tested and evaluated the Heel Strike units. The results of the testing and evaluation and the performance of this small electric generator are presented. The generator’s piezoelectric conversion of mechanical motion into electrical power, its efficiency, the processes it goes through to produce useable power and commercial applications of the Heel Strike electric generator are discussed.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Pornrawee Thonapalin ◽  
Sontipee Aimmanee ◽  
Pitak Laoratanakul ◽  
Raj Das

Piezoelectric materials are used to harvest ambient mechanical energy from the environment and supply electrical energy via their electromechanical coupling property. Amongst many intensive activities of energy harvesting research, little attention has been paid to study the effect of the environmental factors on the performance of energy harvesting from laminated piezoelectric materials, especially when the temperature in the operating condition is different from the room temperature. In this work, thermomechanical effects on the electrical energy harvested from a type of laminated piezoelectric devices, known as thin layer unimorph ferroelectric driver (called THUNDER) were investigated. Three configurations of THUNDER devices were tested in a controlled temperature range of 30–80 °C. The THUNDER devices were pushed by using a cam mechanism in order to generate required displacements and frequencies. The experimental results exhibited a detrimental effect of the elevated temperature on the generated voltage and the harvested electrical power. It is due to changes in residual stress and geometry. These results are advantageous for many applications of the THUNDER devices and for future design of a new laminated piezoelectric sensor and energy harvester in an elevated temperature environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Zhao ◽  
Yi Qin ◽  
Lei Guo ◽  
Baoping Tang

Vibration-based energy harvesting technology is the most promising method to solve the problems of self-powered wireless sensor nodes, but most of the vibration-based energy harvesters have a rather narrow operation bandwidth and the operation frequency band is not convenient to adjust when the ambient frequency changes. Since the ambient vibration may be broadband and changeable, a novel V-shaped vibration energy harvester based on the conventional piezoelectric bimorph cantilevered structure is proposed, which successfully improves the energy harvesting efficiency and provides a way to adjust the operation frequency band of the energy harvester conveniently. The electromechanical coupling equations are established by using Euler-Bernoulli equation and piezoelectric equation, and then the coupled circuit equation is derived based on the series connected piezoelectric cantilevers and Kirchhoff's laws. With the above equations, the output performances of V-shaped structure under different structural parameters and load resistances are simulated and discussed. Finally, by changing the angle θ between two piezoelectric bimorph beams and the load resistance, various comprehensive experiments are carried out to test the performance of this V-shaped energy harvester under the same excitation. The experimental results show that the V-shaped energy harvester can not only improve the frequency response characteristic and the output performance of the electrical energy, but also conveniently tune the operation bandwidth; thus it has great application potential in actual structure health monitoring under variable working condition.


Author(s):  
Jinki Kim ◽  
Patrick Dorin ◽  
K. W. Wang

Many common environmental vibration sources exhibit low and broad frequency spectra. In order to exploit such excitations, energy harvesting architectures utilizing nonlinearity, especially bistability, have been widely studied since the energetic interwell oscillations between their stable equilibria can provide enhanced power harvesting capability over a wider bandwidth compared to the linear counterpart. However, one of the limitations of these nonlinear architectures is that the interwell oscillation regime may not be activated for a low excitation level that is not strong enough to overcome the potential energy barrier, thus resulting in low amplitude intrawell response which provides poor energy harvesting performance. While the strategic integration of bistability and additional dynamic elements has shown potential to improve broadband energy harvesting performance by lowering the potential barrier, there is a clear opportunity to further improve the energy harvesting performance by extracting electrical power from the kinetic energy in the additional element that is induced when the potential barrier is lowered. To explore this opportunity and advance the state of the art, this research develops a novel hybrid bistable vibration energy harvesting system with a passive mechanism that not only adaptively lowers the potential energy barrier level to improve broadband performance but also exploits additional means to capture more usable electrical power. The proposed harvester is comprised of a cantilever beam with repulsive magnets, one attached at the free end and the other attached to a linear spring that is axially aligned with the cantilever (a spring-loaded magnet oscillator). This new approach capitalizes on the adaptive bistable potential that is passively realized by the spring-loaded magnet oscillator, which lowers the double-well potential energy barrier thereby facilitating the interwell oscillations of the cantilever across a broad range of excitation conditions, especially for low excitation amplitudes and frequencies. The interwell oscillation of the cantilever beam enhances not only the piezoelectric energy harvesting from the beam but also the electromagnetic energy harvesting from the spring-loaded magnet oscillator by inducing large amplitude vibrations of the magnet oscillator. Numerical investigations found that the proposed architecture yields significantly enhanced energy harvesting performance compared to the conventional bistable harvester with fixed magnet.


2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 30901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelkader Rjafallah ◽  
Abdelowahed Hajjaji ◽  
Fouad Belhora ◽  
Abdessamad El Ballouti ◽  
Samira Touhtouh ◽  
...  

More recently, the ferroelectric ceramic/polymer composites have been progressively replacing ferroelectric ceramics and polymers as they combine their interesting properties. Such as high compliance of polymers and high electromechanical coupling of ferroelectric ceramics those are required for piezoelectric transducer applications. At the same time, the ferroelectric ceramic/polymer composites formalism for predicting their energy-conversion capabilities is of both academic and industrial interest. The novelty of this paper is that the electrical power harvested by the PZT/PU polarized composite has been expressed in terms of the effective longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of the composite via a parameter p related to the poling ratio. Besides, the parameter p, that is characterizing the PZT/PU composites with different longitudinal piezoelectric coefficients (d33), was evaluated. The other parameters of the electrical power expression were calculated using the Yamada model for the dielectric, piezoelectric and elastic constants. Finally, a good agreement was found between experience and model.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 155892501300800
Author(s):  
François M. Guillot ◽  
Haskell W. Beckham ◽  
Johannes Leisen

In the past few years, the growing need for alternative power sources has generated considerable interest in the field of energy harvesting. A particularly exciting possibility within that field is the development of fabrics capable of harnessing mechanical energy and delivering electrical power to sensors and wearable devices. This study presents an evaluation of the electromechanical performance of hollow lead zirconate titanate (PZT) fibers as the basis for the construction of such fabrics. The fibers feature individual polymer claddings surrounding electrodes directly deposited onto both inside and outside ceramic surfaces. This configuration optimizes the amount of electrical energy available by placing the electrodes in direct contact with the surface of the material and by maximizing the active piezoelectric volume. Hollow fibers were electroded, encapsulated in a polymer cladding, poled and characterized in terms of their electromechanical properties. They were then glued to a vibrating cantilever beam equipped with a strain gauge, and their energy harvesting performance was measured. It was found that the fibers generated twice as much energy density as commercial state-of-the-art flexible composite sensors. Finally, the influence of the polymer cladding on the strain transmission to the fiber was evaluated. These fibers have the potential to be woven into fabrics that could harvest mechanical energy from the environment and could eventually be integrated into clothing.


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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document