Experimental Investigation of Energy Harvesting With Essential Nonlinearities

Author(s):  
Angela Triplett ◽  
D. Dane Quinn

The advancement of technology of portable electronics and devices has increased the need for self-sufficient energy sources. This work investigates the potentiality of a vibration-based energy harvesting system based on the response of an attachment with strong nonlinear behavior. The electromagnetic coupling is achieved by a piezoelectric element across a resistive load. Typical designs utilize a linear oscillator, which limits the peak harvesting performance to a narrow band of frequencies about the natural frequency of the oscillator. An essentially nonlinear cubic oscillator is shown, with proper design, to significantly improve the range of frequencies for sufficient harvesting when compared with a tuned linear oscillator design. Numerical simulations of the proposed model reveal this wider band of frequencies harvest significant power when the system is subjected to harmonic excitation. A physical model was developed and the acquired instantaneous voltage was recorded to calculate the average power over a resistive load and to experimentally validate the numerical simulations.

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Dane Quinn ◽  
Angela L. Triplett ◽  
Alexander F. Vakakis ◽  
Lawrence A. Bergman

Energy harvesting devices designed with intentional nonlinearities offer the possibility of increased performance under broadband excitations and realistic environmental conditions. This work considers an energy harvesting system based on the response of an attachment with strong nonlinear behavior. The electromechanical coupling is achieved with a piezoelectric element across a resistive load. When the system is subject to harmonic excitation, the harvested power from the nonlinear system exhibits a wider interval of frequencies over which the harvested power is significant, although an equivalent linear device offers greater efficiency at its design frequency. However, for impulsive excitation, the performance of the nonlinear harvesting system exceeds the corresponding linear system in terms of both magnitude of power harvested and the frequency interval over which significant power can be drawn from the mechanical vibrations.


Author(s):  
Angela Triplett ◽  
D. Dane Quinn ◽  
Alexander F. Vakakis ◽  
Lawrence A. Bergman

Vibration based energy harvesting, whereby mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy that can be stored and later used, offers the possibility of a long-term energy source under many realistic environmental conditions. This work considers an energy harvesting system based on the response of an attachment with strong nonlinear behavior. The electro-mechanical coupling is achieved with a piezo-electric element across a resistive load. When the system is subject to harmonic excitation, the harvested power from the nonlinear system exhibits a wider interval of frequencies over which the harvested power is significant, although an equivalent linear device offers greater efficiency at its design frequency. However, under impulsive excitation the performance of the nonlinear harvesting system exceeds the corresponding linear system in terms of both magnitude of power harvested and the frequency interval over which significant power can be drawn from the mechanical vibrations.


Author(s):  
Steven R. Anton ◽  
Kevin M. Farinholt

The use of energy harvesting systems to provide power to low-power electronic devices has the potential to create autonomous, self-powered electronics. While research has been performed to study the harvesting of ambient energy through a wide variety of transduction mechanisms, this paper presents the investigation of a novel material for vibration-based energy harvesting. Piezoelectret foam, a polymer-based electret material exhibiting piezoelectric properties, is investigated for low-power energy generation. An overview of the fabrication and operation of piezoelectret foams is first given. Mechanical testing is then performed to evaluate the tensile properties of the material, where anisotropy in the length direction is found along with Young’s moduli between 0.5–1 GPa and tensile strengths from 35–70 MPa. Dynamic electromechanical characterization is performed in order to measure the piezoelectric d33 coefficient of the foam over a wide frequency range. The d33 coefficient is found to be relatively constant at 35 pC/N from 5 Hz – 1 kHz. Lastly, energy harvesting tests are performed to evaluate the ability of piezoelectric foam to harvest vibration energy. Frequency response measurements of foam samples excited along the length direction confirm the anisotropic behavior of the material. Harmonic excitation of a pre-tensioned 15.2 cm × 15.2 cm sample at a frequency of 60 Hz and displacement of ± 73 μm yields an average power of 5.8 μW delivered to a 1 mF storage capacitor through a simple diode bridge rectifier. The capacitor is charged to 4.67 V in 30 minutes, proving the ability of piezoelectret foam to supply power to low-power electronics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isarakorn ◽  
Jayasvasti ◽  
Panthongsy ◽  
Janphuang ◽  
Hamamoto

This paper introduces the design and characterization of a double-stage energy harvesting floor tile that uses a piezoelectric cantilever to generate electricity from human footsteps. A frequency up-conversion principle, in the form of an overshooting piezoelectric cantilever, plucked with a proof mass is utilized to increase energy conversion efficiency. The overshoot of the proof mass is implemented by a mechanical impact between a moving cover plate and a stopper to prevent damage to the plucked piezoelectric element. In an experiment, the piezoelectric cantilever of a floor tile prototype was excited by a pneumatic actuator that simulated human footsteps. The key parameters affecting the electrical power and energy outputs were investigated by actuating the prototype with a few kinds of excitation input. It was found that, when actuated by a single simulated footstep, the prototype was able to produce electrical power and energy in two stages. The cantilever resonated at a frequency of 14.08 Hz. The output electricity was directly proportional to the acceleration of the moving cover plate and the gap between the cover plate and the stopper. An average power of 0.82 mW and a total energy of 2.40 mJ were obtained at an acceleration of 0.93 g and a gap of 4 mm. The prototype had a simple structure and was able to operate over a wide range of frequencies.


Author(s):  
Majid Jabbari ◽  
Mostafa Ghayour ◽  
Hamid Reza Mirdamadi

This paper presents to verify the energy harvesting of a nonlinear piezoelectric multilayer beam under harmonic excitation. For getting the perfect performance in energy harvesting, the effect of the energy loss factor, resistive load, and excitation frequency are studied on the results of the power and voltage generated. In this paper, a numerical program is developed with matlab software. Numerical approximation of the nonlinear equations uses a mixed finite element formulation in terms of displacement and potential electrical variables. To verify the numerical results, the experimental results for the energy harvesting of a piezoelectric multilayer beam with harmonic base excitation are used. The multilayer piezoelectric beam (MPB) used consists of two bimorphs in the case of a series connection and a substructure layer of aluminum. For the considered electrical circuit, the piezoelectric energy harvesting model is connected to the resistive load and the generated power in MPB is sent to load resistance. The influence of the type of layer connection on the output voltage value is investigated. The generated voltage and electrical power of the resistive load are verified using the piezoelectric multilayer beam in both resonance and off-resonance cases. According to the results, the maximum value of electric power occurs at the optimum resistive load for the selected frequency value and the behavior of energy harvesting depends greatly on the excitation frequency. Also, the value of the capacitance and resistive load affects the voltage and power generated, and optimum resistance is vital for producing maximum power.


Author(s):  
Marcela de Melo Anice´zio ◽  
Alper Erturk ◽  
Carlos De Marqui Junior ◽  
Daniel J. Inman

Transforming aeroelastic vibrations into electricity for low-power generation has received growing attention over the past couple of years. The goal is to convert wind energy into electricity for powering small electronic components employed in wireless applications such as structural health monitoring. The potential applications of interest for aeroelastic energy harvesting range from lifting components in aircraft structures to several other engineering problems involving wireless electronic components located in high wind areas. This paper investigates linear and nonlinear aeroelastic energy harvesting using electromagnetic induction. A two-dimensional airfoil with plunge and pitch degrees of freedom (DOF) is considered. The electromagnetic induction is introduced to the plunge DOF by means of a coil-magnet combination and the nonlinearities are introduced through the pitch DOF. The governing dimensionless aeroelastic equations are given with electromagnetic coupling and a resistive load in the electrical domain. The effects of several dimensionless system parameters (electromechanical coupling, load resistance, and coil inductance) on the dimensionless electrical power as well as the dimensionless linear flutter speed are investigated. After considering the linear problem, combined nonlinearities are investigated to improve the electrical output. A cubic stiffness of the hardening type is combined with the free play nonlinearity to make the resulting nonlinear oscillations bounded with acceptable amplitude over a wide range of airflow speeds. The results and the dimensionless simulations presented in this work can be employed for designing and optimizing scalable aeroelastic energy harvesters for wind energy harvesting using electromagnetic induction.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (05) ◽  
pp. 1450066 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. El Aroudi ◽  
H. Ouakad ◽  
L. Benadero ◽  
M. Younis

Recently, nonlinearities have been shown to play an important role in increasing the extracted energy of vibration-based energy harvesting systems. In this paper, we study the dynamical behavior of a piecewise linear (PWL) spring-mass-damper system for vibration-based energy harvesting applications. First, we present a continuous time single degree of freedom PWL dynamical model of the system. Different configurations of the PWL model and their corresponding state-space regions are derived. Then, from this PWL model, extensive numerical simulations are carried out by computing time-domain waveforms, state-space trajectories and frequency responses under a deterministic harmonic excitation for different sets of system parameter values. Stability analysis is performed using Floquet theory combined with Filippov method, Poincaré map modeling and finite difference method (FDM). The Floquet multipliers are calculated using these three approaches and a good concordance is obtained among them. The performance of the system in terms of the harvested energy is studied by considering both purely harmonic excitation and a noisy vibrational source. A frequency-domain analysis shows that the harvested energy could be larger at low frequencies as compared to an equivalent linear system, in particular, for relatively low excitation intensities. This could be an advantage for potential use of this system in low frequency ambient vibrational-based energy harvesting applications.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana L. Silva ◽  
Marcelo A. Savi ◽  
Paulo C. C. Monteiro ◽  
Theodoro A. Netto

Vibration-based energy harvesting with piezoelectric elements has an increasing importance nowadays being related to numerous potential applications. A wide range of nonlinear effects is observed in energy harvesting devices and the analysis of the power generated suggests that they have considerable influence on the results. Linear constitutive models for piezoelectric materials can provide inconsistencies on the prediction of the power output of the energy harvester, mainly close to resonant conditions. This paper investigates the effect of the nonlinear behavior of the piezoelectric coupling. A one-degree of freedom mechanical system is coupled to an electrical circuit by a piezoelectric element and different coupling models are investigated. Experimental tests available in the literature are employed as a reference establishing the best matches of the models. Subsequently, numerical simulations are carried out showing different responses of the system indicating that nonlinear piezoelectric couplings can strongly modify the system dynamics.


Fuels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-178
Author(s):  
Marzia Quaglio ◽  
Daniyal Ahmed ◽  
Giulia Massaglia ◽  
Adriano Sacco ◽  
Valentina Margaria ◽  
...  

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are energy harvesting devices where the anode is buried inside marine sediment, while the cathode stays in an aerobic environment on the surface of the water. To apply this SCMFC as a power source, it is crucial to have an efficient power management system, leading to development of an effective energy harvesting technique suitable for such biological devices. In this work, we demonstrate an effective method to improve power extraction with SMFCs based on anodes alternation. We have altered the setup of a traditional SMFC to include two anodes working with the same cathode. This setup is compared with a traditional setup (control) and a setup that undergoes intermittent energy harvesting, establishing the improvement of energy collection using the anodes alternation technique. Control SMFC produced an average power density of 6.3 mW/m2 and SMFC operating intermittently produced 8.1 mW/m2. On the other hand, SMFC operating using the anodes alternation technique produced an average power density of 23.5 mW/m2. These results indicate the utility of the proposed anodes alternation method over both the control and intermittent energy harvesting techniques. The Anode Alternation can also be viewed as an advancement of the intermittent energy harvesting method.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2171
Author(s):  
Hyeonsu Han ◽  
Junghyuk Ko

Along with the increase in renewable energy, research on energy harvesting combined with piezoelectric energy is being conducted. However, it is difficult to predict the power generation of combined harvesting because there is no data on the power generation by a single piezoelectric material. Before predicting the corresponding power generation and efficiency, it is necessary to quantify the power generation by a single piezoelectric material alone. In this study, the generated power is measured based on three parameters (size of the piezoelectric ceramic, depth of compression, and speed of compression) that contribute to the deformation of a single PZT (Lead zirconate titanate)-based piezoelectric element. The generated power was analyzed by comparing with the corresponding parameters. The analysis results are as follows: (i) considering the difference between the size of the piezoelectric ceramic and the generated power, 20 mm was the most efficient piezoelectric ceramic size, (ii) considering the case of piezoelectric ceramics sized 14 mm, the generated power continued to increase with the increase in the compression depth of the piezoelectric ceramic, and (iii) For piezoelectric ceramics of all diameters, the longer the depth of deformation, the shorter the frequency, and depending on the depth of deformation, there is a specific frequency at which the charging power is maximum. Based on the findings of this study, PZT-based elements can be applied to cases that receive indirect force, including vibration energy and wave energy. In addition, the power generation of a PZT-based element can be predicted, and efficient conditions can be set for maximum power generation.


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