Modeling and Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting From Aeroelastic Vibrations Using the Doublet-Lattice Method

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos De Marqui ◽  
Wander G. R. Vieira ◽  
Alper Erturk ◽  
Daniel J. Inman

Multifunctional structures are pointed out as an important technology for the design of aircraft with volume, mass, and energy source limitations such as unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and micro air vehicles (MAVs). In addition to its primary function of bearing aerodynamic loads, the wing/spar structure of an UAV or a MAV with embedded piezoceramics can provide an extra electrical energy source based on the concept of vibration energy harvesting to power small and wireless electronic components. Aeroelastic vibrations of a lifting surface can be converted into electricity using piezoelectric transduction. In this paper, frequency-domain piezoaeroelastic modeling and analysis of a cantilevered platelike wing with embedded piezoceramics is presented for energy harvesting. The electromechanical finite-element plate model is based on the thin-plate (Kirchhoff) assumptions while the unsteady aerodynamic model uses the doublet-lattice method. The electromechanical and aerodynamic models are combined to obtain the piezoaeroelastic equations, which are solved using a p-k scheme that accounts for the electromechanical coupling. The evolution of the aerodynamic damping and the frequency of each mode are obtained with changing airflow speed for a given electrical circuit. Expressions for piezoaeroelastically coupled frequency response functions (voltage, current, and electrical power as well the vibratory motion) are also defined by combining flow excitation with harmonic base excitation. Hence, piezoaeroelastic evolution can be investigated in frequency domain for different airflow speeds and electrical boundary conditions.

Author(s):  
Wander Gustavo Rocha Vieira ◽  
Carlos De Marqui Junior

In this paper, the modeling and analysis of a nonlinear rectangular plate-like wing with embedded piezoceramics is presented for aeroelastic energy harvesting. The nonlinear electromechanical finite-element plate model is based on the von Karman plate assumptions while the unsteady aerodynamic model uses the doublet-lattice method (originally in frequency domain). The aerodynamic model is converted to the time domain by using Roger’s approximation. A load resistance is considered in the electrical domain of the problem. The set of nonlinear equations is solved with the iterative Newton-Raphson method and the generalized alpha method is used to numerically integrate the equations. Five different wing configurations with aspect ratios varying from one to five are investigated. The effect of the aspect ratio on the linear aeroelastic behavior is first investigated for the short circuit condition. Later, the nonlinear electroaeroelastic behavior is investigated for a range of load resistances and the different aspect ratios of the linear case. The effects of aspect ratio and load resistance on the cut-in speed of limit cycle oscillations (LCOs), on the range of airflow speeds of LCOs of acceptable amplitudes and also on the mechanical and electrical outputs of the generator are investigated.


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):  
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):  
Wander G. R. Vieira ◽  
Fred Nitzsche ◽  
Carlos De Marqui

Converting aeroelastic vibrations into electricity for low-power generation has received growing attention over the past few years. Helicopter blades with embedded piezoelectric elements can provide electrical energy to power small electronic components. In this paper, the non-linear modeling and analysis of an electromechanically coupled cantilevered helicopter blade is presented for piezoelectric energy harvesting. A resistive load is considered in the electrical domain of the problem in order to quantify the electrical power output. The non-linear electromechanical model is derived based on the Variational-Asymptotic Method (VAM). The coupled non-linear rotary system is solved in the time-domain. A generalized-α integration method is used to guarantee numerical stability, adding numerical damping at high frequencies. The electromechanical behavior of the coupled rotating blade is investigated for increasing rotating speeds (stiffening effect).


Author(s):  
Tom Page

The aim of the study was to investigate as to whether piezoelectric energy harvesting could be a viable contributor to a source of renewable energy for the future. Here, a keyboard usage study was conducted using a data gathering computer program called WhatPulse in which participants and their keyboards were monitored for one week. The results were used in conjunction with power output figures from work done by Wacharasindhu and Kwon (2008) who prototyped a piezoelectric keyboard and found it was capable of producing 650 µJ of energy per keystroke. The results from this study suggest piezoelectric keyboards could not be used to create self-sustaining systems for any of the devices proposed. Further uses for the stored energy have been suggested but the question to the viability of piezoelectric keyboards as a useful energy source looks discouraging. Other applications for the technology could be explored to enhance power output and utilise larger amounts of vibrational energy.


Author(s):  
Carmine Valente ◽  
Dorian Jones ◽  
Ann Gaitonde ◽  
Jonathan E. Cooper ◽  
Yves Lemmens

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guobiao Hu ◽  
Lihua Tang ◽  
Arnab Banerjee ◽  
Raj Das

Inspired by the mechanism of acoustic–elastic metamaterial (AEMM) that exhibits a stop band gap for wave transmission, simultaneous vibration suppression and energy harvesting can be achieved by integrating AEMM with energy-harvesting component. This article presents an analytical study of a multifunctional system based on this concept. First, a mathematical model of a unit-cell AEMM embedded with a piezoelectric transducer is developed and analyzed. The most important finding is the double-valley phenomenon that can intensively widen the band gap under strong electromechanical coupling condition. Based on the mathematical model, a dimensionless parametric study is conducted to investigate how to tune the system to enhance its vibration suppression ability. Subsequently, a multicell system is conceptualized from the findings of the unit-cell system. In a similar way, dimensionless parametric studies are conducted to optimize the vibration suppression performance and the energy-harvesting performance severally. It turns out that different impedance matching schemes are required to achieve optimal vibration suppression and energy harvesting. To handle this problem, compromising solutions are proposed for weakly and strongly coupled systems, respectively. Finally, the characteristics of the AEMM-based piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) from two functional aspects are summarized, providing several design guidelines in terms of system parameter tuning. It is concluded that certain tradeoff is required in the process of optimizing the performance toward dual functionalities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaxuan Su ◽  
Xiaohui Lin ◽  
Rui Huang ◽  
Zhidong Zhou

With the attention focused on harvesting energy from the ambient environment for nanoscale electronic devices, electromechanical coupling effects in materials have been studied for many potential applications. Flexoelectricity can be observed in all dielectric materials, coupling the strain gradients and polarization, and may lead to strong size-dependent effects at the nanoscale. This paper investigates the flexoelectric energy harvesting under the harmonic mechanical excitation, based on a model similar to the classical Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. The electric Gibbs free energy and the generalized Hamilton’s variational principle for a flexoelectric body are used to derive the coupled governing equations for flexoelectric beams. The closed-form electromechanical expressions are obtained for the steady-state response to the harmonic mechanical excitation in the flexoelectric cantilever beams. The results show that the voltage output, power density, and mechanical vibration response exhibit significant scale effects at the nanoscale. Especially, the output power density for energy harvesting has an optimal value at an intrinsic length scale. This intrinsic length is proportional to the material flexoelectric coefficient. Moreover, it is found that the optimal load resistance for peak power density depends on the beam thickness at the small scale with a critical thickness. Our research indicates that flexoelectric energy harvesting could be a valid alternative to piezoelectric energy harvesting at micro- or nanoscales.


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