scholarly journals Electro-Active Paper as a Flexible Mechanical Sensor, Actuator and Energy Harvesting Transducer: A Review

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 3474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asif Khan ◽  
Faisal Raza Khan ◽  
Heung Soo Kim

Electro-active paper (EAPap) is a cellulose-based smart material that has shown promising results in a variety of smart applications (e.g., vibration sensor, piezo-speaker, bending actuator) with the merits of being flexible, lightweight, fracture tolerant, biodegradable, naturally abundant, cheap, biocompatible, and with the ability to form hybrid nanocomposites. This paper presents a review of the characterization and application of EAPap as a flexible mechanical vibration/strain sensor, bending actuator, and vibration energy harvester. The working mechanism of EAPap is explained along with the various parameters and factors that influence the sensing, actuation, and energy harvesting capabilities of EAPap. Although the piezoelectricity of EAPap is comparable to that of commercially available polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), EAPap has the preferable merits in terms of natural abundance and ample capacity of chemical modification. The article would provide guidelines for the characterization and application of EAPap in mechanical sensing, actuation, and vibration energy scavenging, along with the possible limitations and future research prospects.

Author(s):  
Enrico Bischur ◽  
Sebastian Pobering ◽  
Markus Menacher ◽  
Norbert Schwesinger

This paper describes an energy harvester working with the repeated deflection of a piezoelectric cantilever. The harvester works in flowing media like wind or water. The bending of the cantilever is driven by vortices traveling across it. The presented device is an easy solution for vibration energy harvesting without the need of external mechanical vibration. The working principle was determined with macroscopic models in wind and water channels. The harvester does not need in general a mechanical adaption to the external vibration frequency, because it oscillates always with its resonance frequency at different flow velocities. Furthermore a self synchronization of cantilevers arranged beside each other could be observed in water. A second system was able to supply a load of approximatly 2 mW in a wind channel at a flow velocity of 8 m/s.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 201-210
Author(s):  
Yoshikazu Tanaka ◽  
Satoru Odake ◽  
Jun Miyake ◽  
Hidemi Mutsuda ◽  
Atanas A. Popov ◽  
...  

Energy harvesting methods that use functional materials have attracted interest because they can take advantage of an abundant but underutilized energy source. Most vibration energy harvester designs operate most effectively around their resonant frequency. However, in practice, the frequency band for ambient vibrational energy is typically broad. The development of technologies for broadband energy harvesting is therefore desirable. The authors previously proposed an energy harvester, called a flexible piezoelectric device (FPED), that consists of a piezoelectric film (polyvinylidene difluoride) and a soft material, such as silicon rubber or polyethylene terephthalate. The authors also proposed a system based on FPEDs for broadband energy harvesting. The system consisted of cantilevered FPEDs, with each FPED connected via a spring. Simply supported FPEDs also have potential for broadband energy harvesting, and here, a theoretical evaluation method is proposed for such a system. Experiments are conducted to validate the derived model.


Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Mösch ◽  
Gerhard Fischerauer

Self-adaptive vibration energy harvesting systems vary their resonance frequency automatically to better exploit changing environmental conditions. The energy required for the adjustment is taken from the energy storage of the harvester module. The energy gained by an adjustment step has to exceed the energy expended on it to justify the adjustment. A smart self-adaptive system takes this into account and operates in a manner that maximizes the energy output. This paper presents a theory for the optimal operation of a vibration energy harvester with a passive resonance-frequency adjustment mechanism (one that only requires energy for the adjustment steps proper, but not during the hold phases between the steps). Several vibration scenarios are considered to derive a general guideline. It is shown that there exist conditions under which a narrowing of the adjustment bandwidth improves the system characteristics. The theory is applied to a self-adaptive energy harvesting system based on electromagnetic transduction with narrowband resonators. It is demonstrated that the novel optimum mode of operation increases the energy output by a factor of 3.6.


Author(s):  
Huifang Liu ◽  
Wencheng Li ◽  
Xingwei Sun ◽  
Yunlong Chang ◽  
Yifei Gao

Due to the low vibration frequency and weak vibration energy in natural environment, the vibration energy harvester is faced with the problem of low power and low adaptability and becoming particularly difficult in actual conditions. It is necessary to improve the harvesting capacity and efficiency by optimizing the parameters of the harvester, making full use of the energy of low and unstable atmospheric vibrations. In this paper, a mathematical model is established for the cantilever magnetostrictive vibration harvester under the base excitation, including the mechanical deformation of the composite beam, and the electromagnetic results produced thereof. The mechanical-magneticelectric energy conversion relationship is duly taken into account. The additional weight, coil parameters, external resistance and other parameters of the harvester are optimized and analyzed through numerical simulation. In addition, the theoretical results are analyzed and discussed via comparison with experiments. Finally, the effects of the above factors are assessed, which allows us to obtain the optimal winding length, number of turns of the coil, and optimal tip additional mass. The experiment result shows that the optimized magnetostrictive harvester can output 12.07[Formula: see text]mW power to the external resistor under the condition of 1[Formula: see text]g acceleration mechanical vibration, with normalized power density reaching 40.2[Formula: see text]mW/cm3/g. Moreover, the optimized magnetostrictive harvester can successfully supply power for the LED display screen of the temperature sensor and a low-power thermometer.


2017 ◽  
pp. 989-1014
Author(s):  
Ooi Beng Lee ◽  
Thein Chung Ket ◽  
Yew Chun Keat ◽  
A. Rashid A. Aziz

This chapter reviews present usage of vibration-based energy harvesting (VEH) devices and applications. The evolution of energy resources and advance in electronic technologies has resulting the need of self-sustainable wireless/portable electronic devices in current modern society. Batteries are non-beneficial in the miniaturization process of electronic designing and alternative power supplies are desperately needed to fill in the falling behind technologies gap to drive the advance of the wireless/portable development further. VEH mechanism is suggested in this chapter as the solution for the bottleneck. Various consideration of creating an optimal vibration energy harvester are suggested through an analytical model of a mechanical transducer. Useful applications and usages of VEH are presented and some suggestion for improvement are also given. Lastly, the trend of energy harvesting is annotated and commented in-line with the demand of electronic sensors market.


Author(s):  
Haiping Liu ◽  
Dongmei Zhu

The paper concerns the dynamic responses and vibration energy harvesting characteristics in an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester comprising three-parameter mechanical vibration subsystem. For completeness and comparison, a two-parameter vibration energy harvester is also presented. The analytical expressions of the amplitude-frequency and phase-frequency responses of the inertial mass and the current in the electrical circuit are respectively derived by applying dimensionless method to the studied two- and three-parameter dynamic systems. Considering the effects of different types of ambient excitation, a single-frequency harmonic load and a periodic load are introduced into the analytical expressions on the dynamic performance of the vibration energy harvester. First of all, the influences of the designing parameters from the mechanical vibration subsystem and the electrical circuit subsystem on the vibration energy harvester are investigated. For evaluating the effects due to introducing the three-parameter mechanical vibration component, comparisons are made between two- and three-parameter vibration energy harvesters to convert the ambient excitations into electrical energy. And then, the expressions of the dimensionless average power which delivered into an electrical load under a single-frequency harmonic excitation or a periodic excitation are derived. The calculating results show that the energy conversion efficiency is enhanced significantly by changing the mechanical damping efficiency and the stiffness ratio for the three-parameter mechanical component of the energy harvester. At the same time, the average power of the three-parameter vibration energy harvester, which delivered into the electrical load, is also improved. However, the influences of the electrical circuit component on the ambient energy harvesting can be omitted when keeping the designing parameters of the mechanical part constant.


2014 ◽  
Vol 953-954 ◽  
pp. 655-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Qing Shang ◽  
Hong Bing Wang ◽  
Chun Hua Sun

Energy harvesting system has become one of important areas of ​​research and develops rapidly. How to improve the performance of the piezoelectric vibration energy harvester is a key issue in engineering applications. There are many literature on piezoelectric energy harvesting. The paper places focus on summarizing these literature of mathematical modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting, ranging from the linear to nonlinear, from early a single mechanical degree to piezoaeroelastic problems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Gao ◽  
Hongrui Ao ◽  
Hongyuan Jiang

Abstract Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting technology has attracted significant attention for its applications in integrated circuits, microelectronic devices, and wireless sensors due to high power density, easy integration, simple configuration, and other outstanding features. Among piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting structures, the cantilevered beam is one of the simplest and most commonly used structures. In this work, a vertically staggered rectangle-through-holes (VS-RTH) cantilevered model is proposed, which focuses on the multi-directional vibration collection. To verify the output performance of the device, this paper employs basic materials and fabrication methods with mathematical modeling. The simulations are conducted through finite element methods to discuss the properties of VS-RTH energy harvester on resonant frequency and output characteristics. Besides, an energy storage circuit is adopted as a collection system. It can achieve a maximum voltage of 4.5 V which is responded to the harmonic vibrating input of 1 N force and 1 m/s2 in a single vibrating direction. Moreover, the power density is 2.596 W/cm3 with a 100 kΩ resistor. It is almost four times better than the output of unidirectional cantilever beam with similar resonant frequency and volume. According to the more functionality in the applications, VS-RTH energy harvester can be used in general vibration acquisition of machines and vehicles. Except for electricity storage, the harvester can potentially employ as a sensor to monitor the diversified physical signals for smooth operation and emergence reports. Looking forward, the VS-RTH harvester renders an effective approach toward decomposing the vibration directions in the environment for further complicating vibration applications.


Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Jun Jung ◽  
Saman Nezami ◽  
Soobum Lee

Energy harvesters generate power only when ambient energy is available, and power loss is significant when the harvester does not produce energy and its power management circuit is still turned on. This paper proposes a new high-efficiency power management circuit for intermittent vibration energy harvesting. The proposed circuit is unique in terms of autonomous power supply switch between harvester and storage device (battery), as well as self-start and control of the operation mode (between active and sleep modes). The self-start controller saves power during an inactive period and the impedance matching concept enables maximum power transfer to the storage device. The proposed circuit is prototyped and tested with an intermittent vibration energy harvester. Test results found that the daily energy consumption of the proposed circuit is smaller than that of the resistive matching circuit: 0.75 J less in sleep mode and 0.04 J less in active mode with self-start.


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