An Atmospheric Energy Harvester System: Linear Model and Test

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sneha Ganesh ◽  
Todd Schweisinger ◽  
John R. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Electric Power ◽  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Power Transformer ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Storage Unit ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Energy Storage Unit ◽  
Atmospheric Energy

Energy harvesters are steadily gaining popularity as a power source for microelectronic circuits, particularly in wireless sensor nodes and autonomous devices. Energy harvesting from small temperature and/or pressure variations, coupled with an appropriate energy storage unit, can generate sufficient electric power to operate low power electronics. Ongoing research in this area seeks to improve the power capacity and conversion efficiencies of such systems. In this project, a phase change vapor based atmospheric energy harvester with an electromechanical power transformer has been developed. An ethyl chloride fluid system converts the pressure generated, in response to nominal environmental changes, into usable electric power through a mechanical driveline-spring unit and attached DC generator. Published numerical results have indicated 9.6 mW power generation capacity over a 24 hour period for a low frequency sinusoidal temperature input with ±1°C variation at standard pressure. A prototype electromechanical unit was fabricated and experimentally tested; 30 mW electric power for a resistance load was recorded using an emulated input corresponding to 50 bidirectional cyclic atmospheric variations (∼175 hour period). Linearized models were derived to help evaluate the system’s transient characteristics and these mathematical results agreed favorably with the experimental behavior.

scholarly journals Ultra-Low Frequency Eccentric Pendulum-Based Electromagnetic Vibrational Energy Harvester

Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1009
Author(s):  
Mingxue Li ◽  
Huichao Deng ◽  
Yufeng Zhang ◽  
Kexin Li ◽  
Shijie Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Power ◽  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Vibrational Energy ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Wireless Sensor ◽  
Center Frequency ◽  
Vibration Energy ◽  
Outer Side ◽  
Working Frequency

With the development of low-power technology in electronic devices, the wireless sensor network shows great potential in applications in health tracing and ocean monitoring. These scenarios usually contain abundant low-frequency vibration energy, which can be collected through appropriate energy conversion architecture; thus, the common issue of limited battery life in wireless sensor devices could be solved. Traditional energy-converting structures such as the cantilever-beam type or spring-mass type have the problem of high working frequency. In this work, an eccentric pendulum-based electromagnetic vibration energy harvester is designed, analyzed, and verified with the finite element analysis method. The pendulum that contains alternative distributed magnets in the outer side works as a rotor and has the advantages of a simple structure and low center frequency. The structure size is well scalable, and the optimal output performance can be obtained by optimizing the coil thickness and width for a given diameter of the energy harvester. The simulation results show that the energy harvester could work in ultra-low frequencies of 0.2–3.0 Hz. A full-scale prototype of the energy harvester is manufactured and tested. The center working frequency is 2.0 Hz with an average output power of 8.37 mW, which has potential for application in driving low-power wireless sensor nodes.

scholarly journals Development of an effective accumulator battery with a voltage inverter in the electric energy storage unit

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-52
Author(s):  
Aleksey Udovichenko ◽  
◽  
Vadim Tokarev ◽  
Evgeny Grishanov ◽  
Sergey Kuchak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Storage Unit ◽  
Voltage Inverter ◽  
Energy Storage Unit ◽  
Electric Energy Storage ◽  
Accumulator Battery

The article proposes a matching device between an accumulator battery and a voltage inverter in electric energy storage systems based on a reversible DC-DC converter with improved weight, size and cost indicators. Lithium-ion batteries are subject to tough operational requirements. The discharge of such batteries is not recommended to exceed their three-fold capacity (C), while the charge is limited to 0.5C, and low-frequency ripple components should not be present in the charging current. These requirements can be fulfilled with the help of the proposed matching device which is characterized by smaller dimensions and cost achieved due to the choke unit. The article proposes the calculation of the converter circuit and presents the simulation results obtained in the Psim simulation environment (the PowerSim environment). An economic assessment of the converter has been carried out.

scholarly journals A Tuning Fork Frequency Up-Conversion Energy Harvester

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (21) ◽  
pp. 7285
Author(s):  
Qinghe Wu ◽  
Shiqiao Gao ◽  
Lei Jin ◽  
Xiyang Zhang ◽  
Zuozong Yin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Tuning Fork ◽  
Vibration Mode ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Sensor Nodes ◽  
Storage Device ◽  
Peak Voltage ◽  
Low Frequency Vibration

In this paper, a novel tuning fork structure for self-frequency up-conversion is proposed. The structure has an in-phase vibration mode and an anti-phase vibration mode. The in-phase vibration mode is used to sense the environment vibration, and the anti-phase vibration mode is used for energy conversion and power generation. The low-frequency energy collection and the high-frequency energy conversion can be achieved simultaneously. Theoretical and experimental results show that the tuning fork frequency up-conversion energy harvester has excellent performance. This structure provides the energy harvester with excellent output power in a low-frequency vibration environment. At the resonant frequency of 7.3 Hz under 0.7 g acceleration, the peak voltage is 41.8 V and the peak power is 8.74 mW. The tuning fork frequency up-conversion energy harvester causes the humidity sensor to work stably. The structure has the potential to power wireless sensor nodes or to be used as a small portable vibration storage device, especially suitable for the monitoring of the environment related to human movement.

scholarly journals Improved Control of Forest Microgrids with Hybrid Complementary Energy Storage

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 2523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Liu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Component ◽  
High Frequency Component ◽  
Complementary Energy ◽  
Power Fluctuation ◽  
Storage Unit ◽  
Energy Storage Unit

In order to improve the power quality and the fault ride-through capability of islanded forest microgrids, a hybrid complementary energy storage control method is proposed. In this method, mode-based sectional coordinated control is adopted as the basic control scheme, whereas control of the hybrid energy storage, which includes the battery, the supercapacitor, and the wind turbine, utilizes the improved strategy. According to the characteristics of the energy storage units, adaptive control of batteries and supercapacitors are adopted to smooth the low-frequency power fluctuation in the long-term and to suppress the high-frequency component separately, in which predictive control of the converters is utilized to achieve rapid regulation. Furthermore, as a third energy storage unit, the wind power unit was investigated, utilizing the large rotating kinetic energy of the wind turbine to temporally suppress huge power disturbance and avoid load shedding. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed coordination control with hybrid complementary energy storage, simulations of the islanded DC microgrid in forest area were conducted in MATLAB/Simulink, with the results showing that, by utilizing the improved control method, the transient operation characteristics of the system were effectively enhanced.

scholarly journals A Multi-Mode Broadband Vibration Energy Harvester Composed of Symmetrically Distributed U-Shaped Cantilever Beams

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Huang ◽  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Keren Dai
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Vibration Energy ◽  
Cantilever Beams ◽  
Resonant Frequencies ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Piezoelectric Energy ◽  
Straight Beam ◽  
Resonance Frequencies

Using the piezoelectric effect to harvest energy from surrounding vibrations is a promising alternative solution for powering small electronic devices such as wireless sensors and portable devices. A conventional piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) can only efficiently collect energy within a small range around the resonance frequency. To realize broadband vibration energy harvesting, the idea of multiple-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) PEH to realize multiple resonant frequencies within a certain range has been recently proposed and some preliminary research has validated its feasibility. Therefore, this paper proposed a multi-DOF wideband PEH based on the frequency interval shortening mechanism to realize five resonance frequencies close enough to each other. The PEH consists of five tip masses, two U-shaped cantilever beams and a straight beam, and tuning of the resonance frequencies is realized by specific parameter design. The electrical characteristics of the PEH are analyzed by simulation and experiment, validating that the PEH can effectively expand the operating bandwidth and collect vibration energy in the low frequency. Experimental results show that the PEH has five low-frequency resonant frequencies, which are 13, 15, 18, 21 and 24 Hz; under the action of 0.5 g acceleration, the maximum output power is 52.2, 49.4, 61.3, 39.2 and 32.1 μW, respectively. In view of the difference between the simulation and the experimental results, this paper conducted an error analysis and revealed that the material parameters and parasitic capacitance are important factors that affect the simulation results. Based on the analysis, the simulation is improved for better agreement with experiments.

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