Analysis Of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Research Articles

A Novel Design and Performance Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with Application to a Vehicle Suspension System Moving on Uniform Bridges

A Novel Design and Performance Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with Application to a Vehicle Suspension System Moving on Uniform Bridges

Coupled iterative partitioning analysis for flow-driven piezoelectric energy harvesters

Scavenging of energy from the environment is an important engineering challenge. Recently, many researchers have investigated flow-driven piezoelectric energy harvesters, which harvest electricity from flow-induced vibration via the piezoelectric effect, and have applied them to drive low-power devices. Such harvesting is a complicated multi-physics problem involving fluid–structure interactions, piezoelectricity, and circuit design. The purpose of this study is to model such harvesting in detail and to solve the detailed model by strong coupling approaches. Although a few studies based on monolithic approaches have been recently reported, there is no study based on iterative partitioning approaches, which offer the advantage of allowing the use of existing sub-solvers. The novelty of the present study is to develop the iterative partitioning method-based analysis system. In this paper, we formulate nonlinear equations for flow-driven piezoelectric energy harvesting, of which unknown is structural displacement. We then provide an algorithm based on the iterative partitioning method. The proposed analysis system comprises an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian-based fluid analysis solver, a monolithic structure–piezoelectricity interaction analysis solver, and a circuit analysis solver. Finally, we show the results of two numerical simulations to validate our proposed analysis systems. The first involves an analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesting in the absence of the effects of the surrounding fluid. The second considers flow-driven piezoelectric energy harvesting. The results of both simulations are in good agreement with those reported in previous studies.

Design and analysis of piezoelectric energy harvester for laser pointer

Obtaining energy from human body activities to power electronic equipment has broad application prospects. In this study, a piezoelectric energy harvesting system is designed to harvest energy from human finger rapping. The harvested energy can drive a laser lamp group to operate. The piezoelectric energy harvester uses a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a spring-mass block at the free end to obtain the kinetic energy of the finger operating a laser pen. The structure can produce considerable bending deformation under finger movement. At the same time, a dual-input synchronized switch harvesting on inductor circuit is designed to extract the charge generated by the piezoelectric beam when the spring-mass block at the free end is rapped and store it in the energy storage element. The charge and discharge of the energy storage element are controlled by a DC-DC management circuit. Experimental results show that the average harvesting power of the piezoelectric energy acquisition system is 169 μW, and its power density is 388.5 μW/cm3. When the spring-mass block is rapped for 8 s, the energy generated by the piezoelectric energy harvester lights the laser pen for 0.35 s.

A comprehensive analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesting from bridge vibrations

Piezoelectric energy harvesting from bridge vibrations has the potential to power wireless sensors used for bridge health monitoring. Often, it is necessary to store the harvested energy before it could be used to power the sensor intermittently. However, the behavior of the piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) with nonlinear interface circuits for energy extraction and storage subject to realistic bridge vibrations has not been fully understood. This work performs a comprehensive analysis on the performance of the PEH subject to the measured railway bridge vibrations and compares the energy stored on a capacitor using four different interface circuits. Firstly, the dynamic characteristics of the railway bridge is analyzed. A cantilevered PEH is then designed and fabricated based on the dynamic characteristics of the bridge. Subsequently, four realistic energy extraction and storage interface circuits, namely, the standard energy harvesting (SEH), synchronized charge extraction (SCE), parallel synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (P-SSHI) and series SSHI (S-SSHI) circuits, are evaluated and compared when the PEH subject to the measured bridge vibrations. The influence of the storage capacitance and the 1st short-circuit natural frequency of the PEH on the stored energy with these four circuits is then discussed. An optimal storage capacitance exists in the systems based on SEH, P-SSHI and S-SSHI circuits. The system based on P-SSHI circuit has the highest efficiency on energy storage. This work provides a technical framework to develop the realistic energy harvesting and storage system for realization of self-powered bridge condition monitoring.

Simulation and Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with Various Proof-Mass Geometries

This paper aims to generate electricity, by decreasing fossil fuels consumption and conserving electricity for further use. In this project, the method is to produce pollution-free electricity using the technique i.e. piezoelectric effect technique. By applying mechanical stress electric charge is generated known as the piezoelectric effect. A sufficient amount of energy is produced as it can reduce the damage of pollution caused by power plants. So to make the use of moving vehicles on road, power generated helps the environment last longer. Different shape, proof mass geometries are analyzed and plotted a graph between frequency versus voltage and electrical energy. Among them, it is identified that stacked cylindrical block has a good Voltage of 2.04mV (milliVolts = 10-3V) and Energy of 21.2fJ (femtoJoule = 10-15J).

Theoretical modeling and analysis of piezoelectric energy harvester with variable section overhanging beam

With the development of integrated circuits, the volume and power consumption of electrical equipment have decreased dramatically. As an excellent energy conversion method, piezoelectric energy harvester can capture the vibration energy of the environment, so as to realize the self-powered supply of micro and small power electronic devices. In this paper, a variable cross-section extended beam structure is considered as the structure form of piezoelectric energy harvester. The influence of structural parameters on the steady-state response of piezoelectric energy harvester is analyzed, which can improve the output voltage and collection efficiency of the energy harvester. The results show that the thickness of the beam has a great influence on the natural frequency of the piezoelectric energy harvester system, but has little influence on the output response. By changing the thickness of the beam, the low-frequency energy can be captured and the energy collection efficiency can be improved. The thickness of the beam piezoelectric layer has a great influence on the natural frequency of the piezoelectric energy harvester system, but has little influence on the output response. By reducing the thickness of piezoelectric layer, the efficiency of energy collection can be improved.

System-level finite element analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters with rectified interface circuits and experimental validation

The finite element method (FEM) has been widely used for numerical studies of piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) systems, through commercial finite element (FE) packages or specially developed FE formulations. As a convenient computational tool, FEM can deal with systems of high complexity and has evolved into a multiphasic solution to coupled problems in engineering. However, most of FE packages and formulations are limited to coupled-field simulations of PEH systems connected with a linear circuit. On the other hand, rectified circuits are a critical component in practical applications because electronic devices such as wireless sensor nodes and wearable electronics require a DC power supply. Based on the equivalent impedance analysis, this paper proposes a method to enable a coupled-field study of piezoelectric energy harvesters with the standard AC-DC interface circuit through an equivalent linear circuit. The proposed method enables FE packages and formulations to analyze, design, and optimize PEH harvesters at the system level, by either adding the capability of simulating rectified circuits, or reducing a nonlinear circuit interface simulation into a faster and more stable linear simulation that can be solved more conveniently. This equivalent linear circuit method was applied to a rectangular shaped bimorph beam harvester in ANSYS and validated experimentally. The results also match well with those obtained from a system-level analytical approach. As an application example, a comparison study was performed between the rectangular and triangular energy harvesters using FE packages and the proposed equivalent circuit, given the same natural frequency and material volume. In addition, the implementation of this method with FE formulations is briefly outlined and discussed.

Dynamic analysis of piezoelectric energy harvester under combination parametric and internal resonance: a theoretical and experimental study

In this work, theoretical and experimental analysis of a piezoelectric energy harvester with parametric base excitation is presented under combination parametric resonance condition. The harvester consists of a cantilever beam with a piezoelectric patch and an attached mass, which is positioned in such a way that the system exhibits 1:3 internal resonance. The generalized Galerkin’s method up to two modes is used to obtain the temporal form of the nonlinear electromechanical governing equation of motion. The method of multiple scales is used to reduce the equations of motion into a set of first-order differential equations. The fixed-point response and the stability of the system under combination parametric resonance are studied. The multi-branched non-trivial response exhibits bifurcations such as turning point and Hopf bifurcations. Experiments are performed under various resonance conditions. This study on the parametric excitation along with combination and internal resonances will help to harvest energy for a wider frequency range from ambient vibrations.

Performance analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters with a tip mass and nonlinearities of geometry and damping under parametric and external excitations

Based on the Hamilton’s principle, a nonlinear mathematical model of the cantilever-type piezoelectric energy harvester with a tip mass is systematically derived under parametric and external excitations. The proposed model accounts for geometric and electro-mechanical coupling nonlinearities, damping nonlinearity and the inextensibility condition of beam. Using the Galerkin approach, the proposed model is converted into the electro-mechanical coupling Mathieu–Duffing equations. Analytical solutions of the frequency–response curves are presented by the multiple scales method. Nonlinear characteristics of the energy harvesters are explored under parametric excitation and hybrid parametric and external excitations. Analytical results provided new insights into the effects of tip mass and nonlinear damping on the performance of the energy harvester. The results show that with the tip mass increasing, the frequency–response curves of the energy harvester change from the nonlinear hardening type to the nonlinear softening type and the operating bandwidth and the output voltages of the energy harvester enlarge. For parametrical excitation, variation of the quadratic damping does not alter the initial threshold of the harvesters and the position of two transcritical bifurcation points of the frequency–response curves. The initiation threshold decreases with the tip mass increasing. Hybrid parametric and external excitations enhance the bandwidth and output voltage of the energy harvester, which will probably be used as an ideal way to improve the performance of the energy harvesting system.

Theoretical modeling and nonlinear analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters with different stoppers

This study focuses on investigating the dynamic mechanism and nonlinear analysis of a piezoelectric energy harvester with different stoppers so as to determine optimal impact energy harvesting configurations. Based on the Hamilton's principle, a set of coupled nonlinear governing equations for the energy harvesting system is established, which is then discretized by the Galerkin method. It is indicated that the energy harvester without stoppers displays a softening characteristic and this softening becomes more obvious with increasing the base acceleration. This is due to the considered geometric and inertia nonlinearities. By introducing stoppers to the harvester, however, the dynamic behavior changes from softening to hardening characteristic, owing to the induced impact force nonlinearity. Then four kinds of stoppers are compared and better stopper configurations for energy harvesting performance are picked out, following by the consideration of parametric analysis on stopper's stiffness, placed position and spacing distance. It is noted that there exists optimal parameter regions where the energy harvester can strike a balance between bandwidth and generated average power depending on excitation frequencies in surroundings.

Performance Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting in Pavement: Laboratory Testing and Field Simulation

This study investigated the energy harvesting performance of a piezoelectric module in asphalt pavements through laboratory testing and multi-physics based simulation. The energy harvester module was assembled with layers of Bridge transducers and tested in the laboratory. A decoupled approach was used to study the interaction between the energy harvester and the surrounding pavement. The effects of embedment location, vehicle speed, and temperature on energy harvesting performance were investigated. The analysis findings indicate that the embedment location and vehicle speed affects the resulted power output of the piezoelectric energy harvesting system. The embedment depth of the energy module affects both the magnitude and frequency of stress pulse on top of the energy module induced by tire loading. On the other hand, higher vehicle speed causes greater loading frequency and thus greater power output; the effect of pavement temperature is negligible. The analysis of total power output before reaching fatigue failure of the energy module can be used to determine the optimum embedment location in the asphalt layer. The proposed energy harvesting system provides great potential to generate green energy from waste kinetic energy in roadway pavements. Field study is recommended to verify these findings with long-term performance monitoring of pavement with embedded energy harvesters.

Modeling and Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting With Dynamic Plucking Mechanism

Nonharmonic excitations are widely distributed in the environment. They can work as energy sources of vibration energy harvesters for powering wireless electronics. To overcome the narrow bandwidth of linear vibration energy harvesters, plucking piezoelectric energy harvesters have been designed. Plucking piezoelectric energy harvesters can convert sporadic motions into plucking force to excite vibration energy harvesters and achieve broadband performances. Though different kinds of plucking piezoelectric energy harvesters have been designed, the plucking mechanism is not well understood. The simplified models of plucking piezoelectric energy harvesting neglect the dynamic interaction between the plectrum and the piezoelectric beam. This research work is aimed at investigating the plucking mechanism and developing a comprehensive model of plucking piezoelectric energy harvesting. In this paper, the dynamic plucking mechanism is investigated and the Hertzian contact theory is applied. The developed model of plucking piezoelectric energy harvesting accounts for the dynamic interaction between the plectrum and the piezoelectric beam by considering contact theory. Experimental results show that the developed model well predicts the responses of plucking piezoelectric energy harvesters under different plucking velocities and overlap lengths. Parametric studies are conducted on the dimensionless model after choosing appropriate scaling. The influences of plucking velocity and overlap length on energy harvesting performance and energy conversion efficiency are discussed. The comprehensive model helps investigate the characteristics and guide the design of plucking piezoelectric energy harvesters.

Modeling and preliminary analysis of piezoelectric energy harvester based on cylindrical tube conveying fluctuating fluid

In this contribution, a novel type of piezoelectric tubular energy harvester based on fluctuating fluid pressure is investigated. Analytic model of the proposed energy harvester is built under the assumption of axisymmetric radial vibration. Exact solution of the piezoelectric vibrating tube is obtained with its output performances formulated. A series of numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the influences of geometrical parameters, input mechanical load parameters and output electrical load parameters upon the output performances of the proposed piezoelectric tubular energy harvester. The model and simulation results indicate the potential of the proposed piezoelectric tubular energy harvester. It is expected that the energy harvester be useful in powering wireless sensor network for the health monitoring of hydraulic systems, where fluid conveying pipe vibration is omnipresent.

Analysis of piezoelectric energy harvester under modulated and filtered white Gaussian noise

Abstract This paper proposes a comprehensive method for the electromechanical probabilistic analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters subjected to modulated and filtered white Gaussian noise (WGN) at the base. Specifically, the dynamic excitation is simulated by means of an amplitude-modulated WGN, which is filtered through the Clough-Penzien filter. The considered piezoelectric harvester is a cantilever bimorph modeled as Euler-Bernoulli beam with a concentrated mass at the free-end, and its global behavior is approximated by the fundamental vibration mode (which is tuned with the dominant frequency of the dynamic input). A resistive electrical load is considered in the circuit. Once the Lyapunov equation of the coupled electromechanical problem has been formulated, an original and efficient semi-analytical procedure is proposed to estimate mean and standard deviation of the electrical energy extracted from the piezoelectric layers.

Design and kinetic analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters with self-adjusting resonant frequency

Vibration-based energy harvesters have been developed as power sources for wireless sensor networks. Because the vibration frequency of the environment is varied with surrounding conditions, how to design an adaptive energy harvester is a practical topic. This paper proposes a design for a piezoelectric energy harvester possessing the ability to self-adjust its resonant frequency in rotational environments. The effective length of a trapezoidal cantilever is extended by centrifugal force from a rotating wheel to vary its area moment of inertia. The analytical solution for the natural frequency of the piezoelectric energy harvester was derived from the parameter design process, which could specify a structure approaching resonance at any wheel rotating frequency. The kinetic equation and electrical damping induced by power generation were derived from a Lagrange method and a mechanical–electrical coupling model, respectively. An energy harvester with adequate parameters can generate power at a wide range of car speeds. The output power of an experimental prototype composed of piezoelectric thin films and connected to a 3.3 MΩ external resistor was approximately 70–140 μW at wheel speeds ranging from 200 to 700 RPM. These results demonstrate that the proposed piezoelectric energy harvester can be applied as a power source for the wireless tire pressure monitoring sensor.

Time and frequency domain analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters by monolithic finite element modeling

SummaryThe successful design of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices relies upon the identification of optimal geometrical and material configurations to maximize the power output for a specific band of excitation frequencies. Extendable predictive models and associated approximate solution methods are essential for analysis of a wide variety of future advanced energy harvesting devices involving more complex geometries and material distributions. Based on a holistic continuum mechanics modeling approach to the multi‐physics energy harvesting problem, this article proposes a monolithic numerical solution scheme using a mixed‐hybrid 3‐dimensional finite element formulation of the coupled governing equations for analysis in time and frequency domain. The weak form of the electromechanical/circuit system uses velocities and potential rate within the piezoelectric structure, free boundary charge on the electrodes, and potential at the level of the generic electric circuit as global degrees of freedom. The approximation of stress and dielectric displacement follows the work by Pian, Sze, and Pan. Results obtained with the proposed model are compared with analytical results for the reduced‐order model of a cantilevered bimorph harvester with tip mass reported in the literature. The flexibility of the method is demonstrated by studying the influence of partial electrode coverage on the generated power output.

Monolithic modeling and finite element analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters

This paper is devoted to monolithic modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices. From a modeling perspective, piezoelectric energy harvesting is a strongly coupled phenomenon with two-way coupling between the electromechanical effect of the piezoelectric material and the harvesting circuit. Even in applications related to shunt damping, where the attached electrical circuit is passive, accurate modeling of the strong coupling is crucial for proper evaluation of the relevant parameters. The article proposes a monolithic mixed-hybrid finite element formulation for the predictive modeling and simulation of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices. The governing equations of the coupled electromechanical problem are converted into a single integral form with six independent unknown fields. Such a holistic approach provides consistent solution to the coupled field equations which involve structural dynamics, electromechanical effect of the piezoelectric patches and the dynamics of the attached harvesting circuit. This allows accurate computation of the eigenvalues and corresponding mode shapes of a harvester for any finite resistive load coupled to the harvester. The fully three-dimensional mixed-hybrid formulation is capable of analyzing structures with non-uniform geometry and varying material properties. The results of the finite element model are verified against the analytical results of a bimorph harvester with tip mass reported in the literature.

Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Withdrawn by author’s request

Theoretical modeling and nonlinear analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibrations

A nonlinear distributed-parameter model for harvesting energy from vortex-induced vibrations of a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a circular cylinder attached to its end is developed and validated with experimental results. A reduced-order model is derived by using the Euler–Lagrange principle and implementing the Galerkin discretization. A van der Pol wake oscillator is used to model the vortex-induced lift force. A nonlinear analysis is performed to determine the required number of modes in the Galerkin discretization. It is demonstrated that a one- or two-mode approximation in the Galerkin approach is not sufficient to evaluate the performance of the harvester. Based on a five-mode approximation in the Galerkin approach, an identification for the van der Pol wake oscillator coefficients is performed. To design efficient piezoaeroelastic energy harvesters that can generate energy at low freestream velocities, further analysis is performed to investigate the effects of the cylinder’s tip mass, length of the piezoelectric sheet, and electrical load resistance on the synchronization region and performance of the harvester. The results show that depending on the operating freestream velocity, the cylinder’s tip mass, length of the piezoelectric sheet, and electrical load resistance can be optimized to design enhanced piezoaeroelastic energy harvesters from vortex-induced vibrations.

Design optimization and experimental analysis of Piezoelectric Energy harvester

This paper describes an approach to harvest electrical energy from a mechanically excited piezoelectric element. The structure of piezoelectric energy harvester is optimized for maximum power with minimum dimensions through Genetic Algorithm approach to enhance the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy using direct piezoelectric effect. Numerical analysis is carried out to obtain optimal PZT position on the cantilever beam to get maximum harvested power. A rectifier with boost converter IC is used for converting harvested power in to usable DC power. The simulation results are verified experimentally.