Enhanced Coupled Field Modeling of PZT Cantilever Bimorph Energy Harvester

2011 ◽  
Vol 145 ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Long Zhang ◽  
Keith A. Williams ◽  
Zheng Chao Xie

As consumer electronics continue to develop in size and scope, the battery power source with the limited life span poses an increasing economic challenge. This growing problem has motivated the development of the energy harvesters that can scavenge the ambient environment energy and convert it into the electrical energy for use of the wireless sensor nodes and the portable electronics. With the coupled field characteristics of structure to electricity, piezoelectric energy harvesters are under consideration as a means for converting the mechanical energy to the electrical energy, with the goal of realizing completely self-powered sensor systems. In this paper, the development of an enhanced coupled field model for the PCB energy harvester based on a 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 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.

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.


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):  
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.


Aerospace ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Tieck ◽  
G. P. Carman ◽  
D. G. Enoch Lee

This paper presents a new approach using frequency rectification to harvest electrical energy from mechanical energy using piezoelectric devices. The rectification approach utilizes a linearly traveling Rectifier to impart vibrational motion to a cantilever piezoelectric bimorph. A conventional cantilever-type energy harvester is tested aside the rectified beam. The Standard beam generated 0.11 W of power, a power density of 15.63 kW/m3, and an energy density of 130.7 J/m3. The Rectified beam generated 580 mW of power, a power density of 871.92 kW/m3, and an energy density of 313.15 J/m3, a factor 2.4 greater than conventional energy harvesting methods. These results confirm the original thesis that a mechanically rectified piezoelectric Energy Harvester would generate larger Energy and Power Densities as well as Specific Powers, compared to conventional technologies.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2876
Author(s):  
Hailu Yang ◽  
Ya Wei ◽  
Weidong Zhang ◽  
Yibo Ai ◽  
Zhoujing Ye ◽  
...  

Road power generation technology is of significance for constructing smart roads. With a high electromechanical conversion rate and high bearing capacity, the stack piezoelectric transducer is one of the most used structures in road energy harvesting to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. To further improve the energy generation efficiency of this type of piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH), this study theoretically and experimentally investigated the influences of connection mode, number of stack layers, ratio of height to cross-sectional area and number of units on the power generation performance. Two types of PEHs were designed and verified using a laboratory accelerated pavement testing system. The findings of this study can guide the structural optimization of PEHs to meet different purposes of sensing or energy harvesting.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
In-Ho Kim ◽  
Seon-Jun Jang ◽  
Hyung-Jo Jung

Piezoelectric energy harvesters of cantilevered beam type are studied in various fields due to simplicity. In general, these systems obtain electrical energy from mechanical strain by bending of cantilevered beam. However, conventional systems have disadvantages that they have low efficiency in frequency regions other than resonance frequency. To overcome the limitations, various energy harvesters to apply performance enhancement strategies are proposed and investigated. In this paper, a frequency-changeable L shape energy harvester which is form connected cantilever beam and rigid arm is proposed and investigated. The conventional piezoelectric energy harvester exhibits the principal frequency in the simple bending mode whereas the proposed system features the twisting mode resulting in a higher output voltage than the conventional system. The proposed energy harvester is simplified to a two-degree-of-freedom model and its dynamics are described. How the length of a rigid bar affects its natural frequencies is also studied. To evaluate the performance of the system, experiments by using a vertical shaker and numerical simulation are carried out. As a result, it is shown that the natural frequency for a twisting mode decreases as the arm length increased, and the higher output voltage is generated comparing with those of the conventional energy harvester.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2770
Author(s):  
Hailu Yang ◽  
Qian Zhao ◽  
Xueli Guo ◽  
Weidong Zhang ◽  
Pengfei Liu ◽  
...  

Piezoelectric pavement energy harvesting is a technological approach to transform mechanical energy into electrical energy. When a piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) is embedded in asphalt pavements or concrete pavements, it is subjected to traffic loads and generates electricity. The wander of the tire load and the positioning of the PEH affect the power generation; however, they were seldom comprehensively investigated until now. In this paper, a numerical study on the influence of embedding depth of the PEH and the horizontal distance between a tire load and the PEH on piezoelectric power generation is presented. The result shows that the relative position between the PEH and the load influences the voltage magnitude, and different modes of stress state change voltage polarity. Two mathematic correlations between the embedding depth, the horizontal distance, and the generated voltage were fitted based on the computational results. This study can be used to estimate the power generation efficiency, and thus offer basic information for further development to improve the practical design of PEHs in an asphalt pavement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahmat Zaki Auliya ◽  
Poh Choon Ooi ◽  
Rad Sadri ◽  
Noor Azrina Talik ◽  
Zhi Yong Yau ◽  
...  

AbstractA new 2D titanium carbide (Ti3C2), a low dimensional material of the MXene family has attracted remarkable interest in several electronic applications, but its unique structure and novel properties are still less explored in piezoelectric energy harvesters. Herein, a systematic study has been conducted to examine the role of Ti3C2 multilayers when it is incorporated in the piezoelectric polymer host. The 0.03 g/L of Ti3C2 has been identified as the most appropriate concentration to ensure the optimum performance of the fabricated device with a generated output voltage of about 6.0 V. The probable reasons might be due to the uniformity of nanofiller distribution in the polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) and the incorporation of Ti3C2 in a polymer matrix is found to enhance the β-phase of PVDF and diminish the undesired α-phase configuration. Low tapping frequency and force were demonstrated to scavenge electrical energy from abundant mechanical energy resources particularly human motion and environmental stimuli. The fabricated device attained a power density of 14 µW.cm−2 at 10.8 MΩ of load resistor which is considerably high among 2D material-based piezoelectric nanogenerators. The device has also shown stable electrical performance for up to 4 weeks and is practically able to store energy in a capacitor and light up a LED. Hence, the Ti3C2-based piezoelectric nanogenerator suggests the potential to realize the energy harvesting application for low-power electronic devices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-257
Author(s):  
Huda Azam ◽  
Noor Hazrin Hany Mohamad Hanif ◽  
Aliza Aini Md Ralib

ABSTRACT: Piezoelectric energy harvesting is a possible breakthrough to reduce the global issue of electronic waste as they can efficiently convert the ambient vibration to the electrical energy without any additional power. This work presents the design and development of a piezoelectric energy harvester that is capable of transforming vibration from ambient sources into electricity. It focuses on a magnetically plucked piezoelectric beam as an alternative to the mechanically induced harvesters, as the latter are subjected to wear and tear. A prototype comprising of a 40 mm PZT-5H piezoelectric beam with a permanent magnet mounted at one end of the beam, as well as a series of permanent magnets of same types attached on an eccentric rotor was developed along with a National Instruments® data acquisition device. Mean output voltages of 2.98 V, 1.76 V and 0.34 V were recorded when the eccentric rotors were slowly rotated at 8.4 rad/s with increasing distances of 5 mm, 7.5 mm and 10 mm respectively, between the magnets on the rotor and the beam. These results have proven that voltage could also be generated by magnetically plucking the piezoelectric beam, and by reducing the distance between magnets, the amount of voltage generated will be higher. The outcome of this work signifies the possibility for implementation of energy harvesters that are capable of powering electronic devices from hybrid kinetic motion, with a reduced risk of equipment fatigue. ABSTRAK: Penjanaan tenaga melalui piezoelektrik adalah satu penemuan terbesar dalam mengurangkan isu global pengurusan sisa elektronik. Ini kerana ia berupaya mengubah getaran persekitaran kepada tenaga elektrik tanpa sebarang tambahan tenaga. Kajian ini berkenaan reka bentuk dan pembangunan penjana tenaga piezoelektrik yang mampu mengubah getaran persekitaran kepada elektrik. Fokus kajian adalah pada penjanaan tenaga secara magnetik dari bilah piezoelektrik sebagai alternatif kepada penjanaan mekanikal, kerana penjanaan tenaga secara mekanikal berisiko tinggi kepada kerosakan alat dalam jangkamasa panjang. Prototaip piezoelektrik PZT-5H yang berukuran 40 mm ini telah dilengkapi magnet kekal pada hujung bilah, serta satu siri magnet kekal jenis sama turut dipasang pada pemutar eksentrik bersama peranti pengambilan data National Instruments®. Secara purata, sebanyak 2.98 V, 1.76 V dan 0.34 V voltan output telah direkodkan ketika pemutar eksentrik berputar perlahan pada 8.4 rad/s dengan jarak tambahan antara magnet pemutar dan bilah piezoelektrik bersamaan 5 mm, 7.5 mm dan 10 mm, masing-masing. Keputusan menunjukkan tenaga dapat dihasilkan dengan cara pemacuan piezoelektrik secara magnetik, dan tenaga yang terhasil akan bertambah dengan pengurangan jarak antara magnet. Hasil kerja menunjukkan tenaga dapat dihasilkan daripada gerakan kinetik hibrid, dengan risiko rendah pada kerosakan alat.


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