Energy Harvesting Using an Analog Circuit under Multimodal Vibration

Shigeru Shimose,Junjiro Onoda,Kanjuro Makihara

doi:10.1155/2013/736487

Abstract

The efficiency of harvesting energy from a vibrating structure using a piezoelectric transducer and a simple analog circuit is investigated experimentally. This analog circuit was originally invented for a synchronized switch damping on inductor (SSDI) technique, which enhances the damping of mechanical vibration. In this study, the circuit is used to implement a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) technique. A multiple degree of freedom (MDOF) structure is excited by single sinusoidal forces at its resonant frequencies and by random forces. The piezoelectric transducer converts this mechanical energy into electrical energy which is harvested using a standard rectifier bridge circuit with and without our analog circuit. Experimental results show that our analog circuit makes it possible to harvest twice as much energy under both single sinusoidal and random vibration excitations.

Highlights

Energy harvesting techniques have been studied extensively in recent years
We focused on the vibration energy of a structure, using the piezoelectric effect to convert structural vibration energy into electrical energy. ere is substantial research on this technique, as reviewed by Sodano et al [1]
synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) is based on vibration suppression technique named synchronized switch damping on inductor (SSDI)

Summary

Introduction

Energy harvesting techniques have been studied extensively in recent years. Energy harvesting is a process by which energy is captured and stored. Lesieutre et al [2] addressed the damping associated with energy harvesting from structural vibrations. Badel et al [3,4,5] proposed a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) technique to improve energy harvesting. SSHI is based on vibration suppression technique named synchronized switch damping on inductor (SSDI). Both SSHI and SSDI use a piezoelectric transducer attached to the structure and connected to an inductive circuit having an on-off switch [6,7,8,9,10]. A displacement sensor and a controller are needed to synchronize the switching commands with the mechanical vibration. In a self-powered system, these sensors and controllers need to be driven using a fraction of the harvested energy

Methods

Results

Conclusion