Performance Of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Research Articles

Performance of piezoelectric energy harvester with various ratio substrate and micro windmill

Performance of piezoelectric energy harvester with various ratio substrate and micro windmill

Theoretical Analysis of the Power Performance of a Monostable Galloping-Based Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

In the past few years, different kinds of structural nonlinearities, such as external magnetic interaction and multistable structures, have been introduced into galloping energy harvesters to enhance energy harvesting efficiency. However, since the galloping-based piezoelectric energy harvester (GPEH) is a self-excited system, the conventional impedance matching method that is widely used in vibration energy harvesters is no longer valid for it. Therefore, the power characteristics of the nonlinear GPEH are still an open question to be solved. To this end, this paper is motivated to derive the approximate analytical solution of a monostable galloping-based piezoelectric energy harvester through the harmonic balance method and impedance matching theory. The analytical maximum power, power limit, and critical electromechanical coupling are studied from the perspective of the influence of structural nonlinearity on the power performance. Firstly, the approximate analytical solutions of output power, power limit, optimal resistance, and critical electromechanical coupling coefficient are derived. The accuracy of the analytical solution is verified by numerical simulation. It is found that the influence of structural nonlinearity on the power characteristics of the nonlinear GPEH is quite different under different wind speeds. After that, the power characteristics of the system under different wind speeds and different coupling conditions are investigated. The results showed that the maximum power of the system can be increased by introducing stiffness nonlinearity under low wind speed and weakly coupled configuration. Even more, the system can be shifted into a strongly coupled system when the nonlinearity is enhanced to a certain level. Reasonable design of stiffness nonlinearity can effectively reduce the critical electromechanical coupling, which indicates that stiffness nonlinearity is a feasible and effective way to improve the power performance of low-speed wind energy harvesting.

Enhanced flow induced vibration piezoelectric energy harvesting performance by optimizing tapered beam

This paper proposes a tapered cantilever beam flow induced vibration piezoelectric energy harvester, for optimizing the tapered beam and improving the output characteristics. The physical model of the tapered beam harvester is conceived, a two-dimensional CFD simulation model is established, and experimental validation as well as investigation is conducted. The output voltage and displacement response of the harvesters with various tapered beams are explored. The results show that the tapered beam possesses more uniform strain distribution and larger equivalent stiffness, and increasing the fixed end width results in enhancing output voltage and reducing vibration displacement. The optimal tapered beam with a tip width of 25 mm and fixed end width of 45 mm is obtained. The maximum output voltages of the tapered beam VIVPEH and GPEH are increased by 58.30% and 33.16% over the rectangular beam, respectively. The vibration displacements of the tapered beam VIVPEH and GPEH are reduced by 18.31% and 25.12% over the rectangular beam, respectively. The tapered effect in the flow field reduces the vortex shedding distance, increases the shedding frequency, enhances the aerodynamic forces, and thus improves the energy harvesting performance. This work lays the important foundation for exploring the cantilever beam flow induced vibration harvester system.

Timoshenko-Ehrenfest Beam-Based Reconfigurable Elastic Metasurfaces for Multifunctional Wave Manipulation.

Herein, a Timoshenko-Ehrenfest beam-based reconfigurable elastic metasurface is introduced that can perform multifunctional wave phenomena within a single substrate, featuring high transmission in the ultrabroadband frequency range. Conventional elastic metasurfaces are typically limited to specific purposes and frequencies, thereby imposing significant constraints on their practical application. The approach involves assembly-components with various geometries on a substrate for reconfigurability, enabling to easily control and implement multifunctional wave phenomena, including anomalous-refraction, focusing, self-acceleration, and total-reflection. This is the first study on elastic metasurfaces to theoretically analyze the dispersion relation based on the Timoshenko-Ehrenfest beam theory, which considers shear deformations and rotational inertia. The analytical model is validated by demonstrating an excellent agreement with numerical and experimental results. The findings include full-wave harmonic simulations and experimentally visualized fields for measuring various wave modulations. Furthermore, the practicality of the system is verified by significantly enhancing the piezoelectric energy harvesting performance within the focusing configuration. It is believed that the reconfigurable elastic metasurface and analytical model based on the Timoshenko-Ehrenfest beam theory have vast applications such as structural health monitoring, wireless sensing, and Internet of Things.

Enhanced energy harvesting performance of piezoelectric cantilever using (Bi,Sm)ScO3-PbTiO3 ceramics textured by microstructural engineering

Energy harvesting performance of piezoelectric cantilevers using untextured and textured piezoelectric 0.38(Bi0.97Sm0.03)ScO3-0.62PbTiO3 (0.38BSS-0.62PT) ceramics was evaluated and subsequently, results were compared to demonstrate effect of microstructurally engineered texture. The textured 0.38BSS-0.62PT ceramic showed figures of merit and conversion efficiency superior to those of the untextured case. Energy density (d31 × g31) was especially enhanced for the textured 0.38BSS-0.62PT ceramic, which can lead to excellent piezoelectric energy harvesting performance. The output power of the piezoelectric cantilever using textured 0.38BSS-0.62PT ceramic was 8.46 mW at load resistance of 70 kΩ, corresponding to a power density of 12.80 mW/cm3. This was sufficient to fully charge a 10 V capacitor in 280 s.

Morphotropic phase boundary-based BaTi0.89Sn0.11O3 filler induced polarization tuned P(VDF-TrFE) composites as efficient piezo-tribo hybrid nanogenerators

The BaTi0.89Sn0.11O3 (BTS) filler has shown the ability to greatly tune the dielectric permittivity and ferroelectric polarization of the host P(VDF-TrFE) matrix. This was advantageous both for the piezoelectric and piezo-tribo hybrid energy harvesting performance of the composite system.

Improving piezoelectric energy harvesting performance through mechanical stiffness matching

The mechanical energy transfer between the source structure and active material in piezoelectric energy harvesters is investigated here. First, an analytical prediction to improve mechanical energy transfer into the piezoelectric material is proposed and validated by tailoring the stiffness of the beam to off-the-shelf piezocomposites through numerical models and experiments. An experimental study is then presented whereby the mechanical properties of freeze cast piezocomposites are controlled by adjusting the volume fraction of piezoceramic and epoxy filler phases. This offers a new approach for tailoring the mechanical properties of piezocomposites to maximize mechanical energy transfer into the material via stiffness matching.

Investigating the Effect of an Elliptical Bluff Body on the Behavior of a Galloping Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

The extraction of energy from naturally oscillating objects has recently garnered considerable attention from researchers as a robust and efficient method. This study specifically focuses on investigating the performance of a galloping piezoelectric micro energy harvester (GPEH) designed for self-powered microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The proposed micro energy harvester comprises a cantilever beam composed of two layers, one being silicon and the other being a piezoelectric material (PZT-5A). The harvester is equipped with an elliptical tip cylinder, and the entire system is modeled using lumped parameters. To simulate the response of the system, the size-dependent coupled governing equations are numerically solved, enabling the extraction of the dynamic behavior of the energy harvester. Furthermore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are employed to model the effect of the flow field on the oscillations of the beam. Different aspect ratios (AR) of the elliptical cylinder are taken into account in the simulations. The study examines the impact of the aspect ratio and mass of the elliptical tip cylinder on the harvested power of the system. The results demonstrate a notable decrease in the extracted power density for AR = 1 and 2 compared to higher aspect ratios. In the case of AR = 5, the device exhibits an onset wind speed of 7 m/s. However, for AR = 10, the onset wind speed occurs at a lower wind velocity of 5.5 m/s, resulting in a 66% increase in extracted power compared to AR = 5. Additionally, the results reveal that increasing the normalized mass from 10 to 60 results in a 60% and 70% increase in the output power for AR = 5 and AR = 10, respectively. This study offers valuable insights into the design and optimization of galloping piezoelectric micro energy harvesters, aiming to enhance their performance for MEMS applications.

Perforated auxetic honeycomb booster with reentrant chirality: A new design for high-efficiency piezoelectric energy harvesting

The present study develops an auxetic meta-structure booster to advance piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH). The model comprised a three-dimensional (3D) cantilever beam equipped with an auxetic substrate bonded to a piezoelectric (PZT) point defect using an epoxy layer. The substrate used in this proposed energy harvester possesses an auxetic region responsible for generating auxetic behavior and concentrating stress in the PZT layer. The auxetic model called auxetic structure (AS)-II is inspired by ancient motifs and is designed based on the combination of several promising mechanisms, including reentrant, chiral, perforation, and honeycomb supercell. The finite element method is employed to create numerical models whose accuracy is confirmed by mesh convergence and available experimental data. A parametric study is conducted on the AS-II harvester to examine the influence of geometry and PZT material type on the harvested electrical power. Our research efforts stem from both mechanical and electrical circuit fields to fulfill the broadband design target within the desired ultra-low-frequency range of regardless of the resonance condition. As a result, the impact of other factors, such as load resistance, frequency, load amplitude, and bonding stiffness, on the PEH performance is further investigated. The reason behind such outstanding performance of AS-II is explained in terms of geometrical physics and stress distribution. The effect of geometrical dimensions on the auxetic behavior is also analyzed using Poisson’s ratio (PR) study. Subsequently, we demonstrate that this innovative adapter can advance the system’s performance in terms of harvested power and lightweight by a magnification factor of and times that of a plain substrate and and 3.16 times that of a conventional auxetic harvester, respectively. The present harvester is strain controllable, where it can set PR between and resulting in robust PEH even if switching input vibration from high to low levels. This new idea enables us to serve cantilever-type resonators at frequencies far lower than their resonant frequencies with small portions of incident excitement.

DLP printing of BT/HA nanocomposite ceramic scaffolds using low refractive index BT crystals

Biological piezoelectric materials have significant potential for bone repair and energy harvesting owing to their excellent biocompatibility and piezoelectric effect. The BaTiO3/Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 (BT/HA) composite material is an outstanding representative of biological piezoelectric materials, which has not been individually designed using digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing because of the large difference in the refractive index of its components. Therefore, in this work, double-sided-tooth plate-like BT crystals with high curvature were prepared via a hydrothermal process, and BT/HA ceramic slurries were grinded out using dispersed intermittent ball milling scheme, and BT/HA nanocomposite ceramic scaffolds were fabricated by DLP 3D printing technology. The nanostructure, dielectric properties, and piezoelectric energy harvesting performance of the BT/HA nanocomposite ceramic scaffolds were evaluated. The influences of different morphologies and contents for BT on the piezoelectric potential and stress distribution were analyzed based on a multi-physics coupling finite element simulation. The cell proliferation and adhesion abilities were investigated also. The BT/HA nanocomposite ceramic scaffolds present excellent dielectric properties, cell proliferation and adhesion abilities, and an open circuit voltage of 8 V during piezoelectric energy harvesting. The material properties and multi-physics coupling finite element analysis imply that the double-sided-tooth plate-like BT plays an important role for the fastness structure and electric field distribution in the BT/HA nanocomposite. Thus, this work provides a strategy for the application of the customized BT/HA nanocomposite ceramic scaffolds in new-generation orthopedic implants and biological energy harvesting.

FIV and energy harvesting using bluff body piezoelectric water energy harvester with different cross-sections

Research utilizing piezoelectric fiber composites to power network nodes or micro-sensors by capturing energy from the surrounding environment is becoming a hot spot, and the structural design to efficiently improve the performance of energy harvesting is very important. The performance of a vertical cantilever piezoelectric water energy harvester (PWEH) with three different cross-sections including circular, square and equilateral triangle, each with a mass ratio of 4.8, was investigated at Reynolds number within 770–8800. Emphasis is placed on the effects of the bluff body cross-section, load resistance, and flow velocity on the flow-induced vibration (FIV) and energy response of the vertical cantilever beam of the PWEH. Except for the decreasing amplitude in the lower branch of the circular cylinder water energy harvester (CWEH), there is no distinction in the vibration response branches compared to the classical elastically supported circular cylinder. The resistance has little effect on the vibration response, while it has a significant effect on the voltage and power response. The maximum amplitude and pendulum angle of the square cylinder water energy harvester (SWEH) are slightly larger than those of the CWEH. The maximum voltage and power are smaller for the SWEH than for the CWEH. The equilateral triangular cylinder water energy harvester (TWEH) demonstrates excellent performance. It has a maximum amplitude of 3.8 D, 3.4 times that of the CWEH. The peak pendulum angle of TWCH is 13.9°, 3.2 times that of CWEH. It has a voltage of 0.057 V at a resistance of ∞, which is 3.4 times that of CEWH. In addition, the TWCH has an output power of 0.38 nW at a resistance of 106Ω, which is 9.5 times that of the CWEH. This study suggests that the best energy efficiency of TWEH is achieved by coupling vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and galloping excitation.

Design and research of a water energy piezoelectric energy harvester that changes the linear arrangement of magnet

In this paper, a water energy piezoelectric energy harvester (W-PEH) with altered linear arrangement of magnets is proposed and investigated. By changing the linear arrangement of magnets, the vibration frequency of piezoelectric patch is improved. The bottom magnet maintains the magnetic field balance of the entire magnetic coupling system, ensure the smooth running of the prototype. Piezoelectric patch is mounted at a reasonable angle to further enhance the output efficiency. Theoretical modeling and simulation explain the main factors affecting the output performance of W-PEH (the number of magnets arranged linearly and the installation angle of piezoelectric patch). To study the variables above and influence to the output performance, an experimental test system is built. Simulation and experiment show that the maximum output voltage and power of W-PEH are 8V and 1.25 mW respectively when the magnet is arranged linearly at 3 and the piezoelectric patch is installed at 30°. In the application experiment, W-PEH can successfully light up 72 light emitting diodes (LEDs), and real-time hydrological monitoring is possible. Therefore, W-PEH can greatly improve the efficiency of transmitting hydrological monitoring data through self-powered technology. Meanwhile, it provides a new solution for improving the output performance of water energy piezoelectric energy harvester.

Effect of solid content on the piezoelectric properties of porous (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 ceramics

The influence of the solid content of porous (Ba0.85Ca0.15)(Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 (BCZT) ceramics on the pore morphology and mechanical and piezoelectric properties was systematically investigated. The results show that with an increase in solid content, porosity and pore size decreased, and ceramic connectivity increased, leading to an increase in compressive strength. The best ferroelectric performance was achieved with an Ec of 2.40 kV/cm2 and a Pr of 2.01 μC/cm2 at a solid content of 30 vol%. When the solid content increased, the relative dielectric constant and the piezoelectric constant increased, which affected the piezoelectric energy harvesting performance. At a solid content of 20 vol%, g33 and FOM33 reached maxima of 43 × 10−3 Vm/N and 6.7 p.m.2/N, which were 2.40 times and 1.8 times those of the other solid contents, respectively. This work provides new ideas for the design of porous piezoelectric ceramics and the improvement of their piezoelectric properties for future piezoelectric energy harvesting applications.

Impact of stochasticity in galloping force on the performance of piezoelectric energy harvester

The phenomenon of random wind speed fluctuations is an inherent characteristic of natural airflow, and it can significantly impact the power output of galloping-based piezoelectric energy harvesters (GPEHs). In this research, a stochastic model is developed to analyze the system performance considering the random variations in both the wind speed and the aerodynamic parameters derived from quasi-steady theory. Monte Carlo simulations are employed to evaluate the system performance under different degrees of randomness in the wind speed and the aerodynamic coefficients, accounting for quasi-steady theory assumptions. The findings of this study reveal that random variations in the galloping force coefficients exert a more pronounced influence on the electrical power output compared to wind speed. Moreover, the non-linear galloping force coefficient has a more significant influence on power output compared to the linear coefficient.

Enhancing energy harvesting from flow-induced vibration of a semicircular wall via various upstream bluff bodies

Coupling vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and galloping is a promising strategy to enhance the performance of VIV-based piezoelectric wind energy harvesters (PWEHs). In this paper, we proposed to employ upstream bluff bodies to induce the wake of a downstream semicircular wall to evolve from VIV to galloping, where a PWEH was mounted to the semicircular wall. The effects of wind speed, spacing ratio, and cross-section of upstream bluff body on the output performance of the PWEH were examined experimentally. The results showed that an appropriate spacing ratio was required to ensure the occurrence of the wake evolution. Qualitative analyses revealed that the Strouhal number of upstream bluff body could tune the evolving behaviors of the semicircular wall, and the separation distance between VIV and galloping decreased with Strouhal numbers except for the cases in the near wake. The upstream circular and square cylinders performed better in driving the evolution than the trapezoidal and triangular cylinders. The maximum energy conversion efficiency improvement of 38.4% was achieved at a wind speed of 4.0 m/s with a spacing ratio of 10.0 for the upstream square cylinder, compared to that without an upstream bluff body. The findings provide beneficial guidance for developing efficient VIV and galloping coupled energy harvesters.

Effect of electrode patterns on piezoelectric energy harvesting property of zinc oxide polyvinylidene fluoride based piezoelectric nanogenerator

Renewable energy generation is one of the key strategies to solve energy shortages and environmental problems. Among various techniques of renewable energy generation and harvesting, piezoelectric energy harvesting receives huge consideration due to the enormous demand in self-powered electronic devices. Therefore, the development of a piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) with effective piezoelectric energy harvesting performance is very important. Herein, we develop zinc oxide polyvinylidene fluoride based (ZnO@PVDF PENG) device and study on the effects of electrode patterns on the piezoelectric performances of the device. We also investigate real application of the device in our daily life. The findings show that interdigitated electrode patterned ZnO@PVDF PENG present the highest piezoelectric performance by harvesting output current, voltage, and power density of 1.15 μA, 50 V, and 20.10 mW/m2, respectively at 12 N. The device also scavenges energy that has capacity to light 20 green light emitting diodes (LEDs) and display a liquid crystal display (LCD) timer for 1 s. Moreover, the ZnO@PVDF PENG) device shows excellent cyclic charging and discharging property, which is very important for practical applications. Therefore, this PENG device is promising candidate to harvest green and renewable energy and use to power electronic devices.

Performance of piezoelectric energy harvester with vortex-induced vibration and various bluff bodies

Piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) are a kind of energy harvester that generates electricity due to pressure or vibration. Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is a method that utilized wind energy and bluff body to generate the vibration in PEH. The objective of this research was to study the output voltage that generates in different bluff bodies with various airflow velocities. Experimental and simulation have done in this study. Experimental used PEH that consists of piezoelectric bimorph and rectangular-trapezoid fin. Bluff bodies with various cross-sectional areas, namely rhombus, square, and triangle were set up in front of the PEH at a distance of 80 cm. The various air velocities are set up to 5, 7, and 9 m/s in the wind tunnel with a cross-section of 250 mm × 250 mm. The simulation used the finite element method in explore the fluid flow pattern. The rhombus cross-sectional bluff body can generate voltage with an average of 1.5 volts. It is more voltage generated than a square and triangle. A vortex is formed near the rhombus bluff body and generates pressure fluctuation in its wake region. This pressure fluctuation takes place until airflow hits and leads PEH to vibrate and generate the voltage.

Enhanced piezoelectric energy harvesting performance using trailing-edge flap

This paper proposes a novel piezoelectric energy harvester attached with a trailing-edge flap under various installation angles, for enhancing the aeroelastic vibration and improving the harvesting performance. The mathematical models of the fluid-structure-electric coupled fields are derived, the simulation models of the multi-physical coupled fields of the harvester system with various installation angle flaps are established, and the experimental prototypes of the harvester are fabricated. The influences of the flap installation angles on the flow field and output characteristics are investigated theoretically, numerically, and experimentally. The results demonstrate that the flap stiffness and damping coefficients exert less influence on vibration characteristics and harvesting performance. The flap at a certain installation angle alters the flow field, affects the flow pattern, restricts the vortex shedding, and offsets the aerodynamic force and moment. A decrease in the flap installation angles results in increasing the vibration response and output performance. The obtained numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental and theoretical values, which verifies the effectiveness of the simulation model. The maximum plunge amplitude is 0.029 m and the output voltage is 15.51 V at 17.74 m/s and an installation angle of 0o. The enhancement ratio of the output voltage at 0o is up to 148.6% over 45o, which achieves better harvesting performance. The designed harvester system powers indirectly the pedometer for 104 s at 13.58 m/s. This research offers an essential foundation for achieving better tradeoffs in energy harvesting and vibration suppressing by appropriately selecting the flap installation angle.

Nonlocal couple stress-based meshless collocation model for nonlinear dynamic performance of microbeam-type piezoelectric energy harvesters

The prime aim of the current exploration is that to analyze the size-dependent nonlinear dynamics of microsize laminated bridge-type piezoelectric energy harvesters containing a passive core made of an agglomerated nanocomposite and piezoelectric surface layers under a time-dependent mechanical load. For this purpose, the both nonlocal and couple stress tensors are incorporated to the classical quasi-3D shear flexible beam theory to model microsize beam-type laminated energy harvesters. After that, a numerical solution methodology based on the meshless collocation method is employed to discretize the obtained size-dependent nonlinear equations via using a coalesce basis function including polynomial and multiquadric parts on the basis of the Chebyshev node distribution scheme to remove any possible singularity. The nonlinear time histories relevant to the induced lateral deflection and extracted voltage are plotted in the presence and absence of the nonlocal and couple stress tensors as well as various values of the agglomeration constants relevant to the nanocomposite passive core of microsize energy harvesters. One can find that by increasing the cluster volume fraction, the effect of the nonlocal stress tensor on the extracted voltage from the microsize energy harvester increases from +16.50% to +17.53% in the case of simply supported end conditions, and from +21.84% to +22.99% in the case of clamped end conditions. In addition, the effect of the couple stress tensor enhances from −22.21% to −23.09% in the case of simply supported end conditions, and from −27.15% to −27.94% in the case of clamped end conditions.

Electromechanical model and simple numerical analysis for a piezoelectric vibration energy harvester considering nonlinear piezoelectricity, nonlinear damping, and self-powered synchronized switch circuit

Establishment of an analytical technique that considers nonlinear piezoelectricity, nonlinear damping, and the connections to the self-powered synchronized switch circuit represents a challenging but practical issue in the development of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters. The two-way coupled analysis method, which combines numerical software with a circuit simulator, can simulate the performance of the harvester, but it imposes a high computational load. We develop a numerical analysis technique that is more readily implemented to allow us to produce accurate predictions of the output power, displacement, and frequency response characteristics of this harvester with the switch circuit. First, we derive the electromechanical equation required for the miniature harvester, and we then determine the parameters in this equation using the harmonic balance method. Finally, the governing equation coupling the piezoelectric vibration energy harvester with the self-powered synchronized switch circuit is simplified, taking the form of a quartic equation with respect to the displacement. The simulation replicated a reduction in the displacement at higher resistive loads, wider variations in the resonance frequency, and the nonlinear stiffness softening characteristics that were observed experimentally. This paper provides a practical method for predicting the performance of the nonlinear piezoelectric vibration energy harvester with the synchronized switch circuit.