scholarly journals Design of the Squared Daisy: A Multi-Mode Energy Harvester, with Reduced Variability and a Non-Linear Frequency Response

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (15) ◽  
pp. 3247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Gratuze ◽  
Abdul Hafiz Alameh ◽  
Frederic Nabki

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the ever-increasing number of integrated sensors, the question of powering these devices represents an additional challenge. The traditional approach is to use a battery; however, harvesting energy from the environment seems to be the most practical approach. To that end, the use of piezoelectric MEMS energy has been proven as a potential power source in a wide range of applications. In this work, a proof of concept for a new architecture for MEMS energy harvesters is presented. The influence of the dimensions and different characteristics of these designs is discussed. These designs have been proven to be resilient to process variation thanks to their unique architecture. This work presents the use of vibration enhancement petals in order to widen the bandwidth of the energy harvester and provide a non-linear frequency response. The use of these vibration enhancement petals has allowed the fabrication of three design variations, each using an area of 1700 µm by 1700 µm. These designs have an operating bandwidth between 3.9 kHz and 14.5 kHz and can be scaled to achieve other targeted resonant frequencies.

Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Tang ◽  
Fang Cheng ◽  
Xin Hu ◽  
Bo Huang ◽  
Bin Xu ◽  
...  

With the continual increasing application requirements of broadband vibration energy harvesters (VEHs), many attempts have been made to broaden the bandwidth. As compared to adopted only a single approach, integration of multi-approaches can further widen the operating bandwidth. Here, a novel two-degree-of-freedom cantilever-based vibration triboelectric nanogenerator is proposed to obtain high operating bandwidth by integrating multimodal harvesting technique and inherent nonlinearity broadening behavior due to vibration contact between triboelectric surfaces. A wide operating bandwidth of 32.9 Hz is observed even at a low acceleration of 0.6 g. Meanwhile, the peak output voltage is 18.8 V at the primary resonant frequency of 23 Hz and 1 g, while the output voltage is 14.9 V at the secondary frequency of 75 Hz and 2.5 g. Under the frequencies of these two modes at 1 g, maximum peak power of 43.08 μW and 12.5 μW are achieved, respectively. Additionally, the fabricated device shows good stability, reaching and maintaining its voltage at 8 V when tested on a vacuum compression pump. The experimental results demonstrate the device has the ability to harvest energy from a wide range of low-frequency (<100 Hz) vibrations and has broad application prospects in self-powered electronic devices and systems.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107754632097447
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mehdi Meshki ◽  
Ali Salehzadeh Nobari ◽  
Mohammad Homayoune Sadr

In this study, based on parametric excitation originating from airflow oscillation, a novel nonlinear aeroelastic energy harvester is proposed. In this respect, first, the governing equation of the system is derived and studied thoroughly to understand the direct and indirect effects of airflow oscillation on the local and global responses of the system. Then, by using a pseudo-arclength continuation method based on the harmonic balance method, the stable and unstable periodic and quasi-periodic responses of the system are tracked and analyzed. It is demonstrated that the proposed self-parametric (combination parametric and self-excitation) energy harvester can extract more power than the respective nonparametric system for a wide range of amplitudes and frequencies. The gained knowledge of parametric, aeroelastic systems is applicable for both aero-harvesters and other aeroelastic systems undergoing flow oscillation.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 5808
Author(s):  
Ondrej Rubes ◽  
Zdenek Machu ◽  
Oldrich Sevecek ◽  
Zdenek Hadas

Kinetic piezoelectric energy harvesters are used to power up ultra-low power devices without batteries as an alternative and eco-friendly source of energy. This paper deals with a novel design of a lead-free multilayer energy harvester based on BaTiO3 ceramics. This material is very brittle and might be cracked in small amplitudes of oscillations. However, the main aim of our development is the design of a crack protective layered architecture that protects an energy harvesting device in very high amplitudes of oscillations. This architecture is described and optimized for chosen geometry and the resulted one degree of freedom coupled electromechanical model is derived. This model could be used in bistable configuration and the model is extended about the nonlinear stiffness produced by auxiliary magnets. The complex bistable vibration energy harvester is simulated to predict operation in a wide range of frequency excitation. It should demonstrate typical operation of designed beam and a stress intensity factor was calculated for layers. The whole system, without presence of cracks, was simulated with an excitation acceleration of amplitude up to 1g. The maximal obtained power was around 2 mW at the frequency around 40 Hz with a maximal tip displacement 7.5 mm. The maximal operating amplitude of this novel design was calculated around 10 mm which is 10-times higher than without protective layers.


Author(s):  
Ravindra Masana ◽  
Mohammed F. Daqaq

The quest to develop broadband vibratory energy harvesters (VEHs) has recently motivated researchers to explore introducing nonlinearities into the harvester’s design. Some research efforts have demonstrated that this new class of nonlinear harvesters can outperform their traditional linear (resonant) counterparts; some others however concluded that nonlinearities can diminish the harvester’s transduction. Through this effort, we compare the performance of a nonlinear VEH operating in mono- and bi-stable potentials. With that objective, we consider an axially-loaded clamped-clamped piezoelectric beam which functions as an energy harvester in the mono-stable (pre-buckling) and bistable (post-buckling) configurations. For the purpose of fair performance comparison, the oscillation frequency around the stable equilibria of the harvester is tuned to equal values in both configurations. The harvester is then subjected to harmonic base excitations of different magnitudes and a slowly-varying frequency which spans a wide range around the tuned oscillation frequency. The output voltage measured across an arbitrarily chosen electric load is used as a relative performance measure. Both numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the shape of the potential function plays an essential role in conjunction with the magnitude of the base excitation to determine whether the bi-stable harvester can outperform the mono-stable one and for what range of frequencies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12807
Author(s):  
Md Fahim Tanvir Hossain ◽  
Samer Dessouky ◽  
Ayetullah B. Biten ◽  
Arturo Montoya ◽  
Daniel Fernandez

This study aims at designing and developing a new technique to harvest solar energy from asphalt pavements. The proposed energy harvester system consists of a pavement solar box with a transparent polycarbonate sample and a thin-film solar panel. This device mechanism can store energy in a battery charged over daytime and later convert it into electric power as per demand. A wide range of polycarbonate samples containing different thicknesses, elastic moduli, and light transmission properties were tested to select the most efficient materials for the energy harvester system. Transmittance Spectroscopy was conducted to determine the percent light transmission property of the polycarbonate samples at different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Finite Element Analysis modeling of the pavement–tire load system was conducted to design the optimal energy harvester system under static load. It was followed by the collection of data on the generated power under different weather conditions. The energy harvesters were also subjected to vehicular loads in the field. The results suggest that the proposed pavement solar box can generate an average of 23.7 watts per square meter continuously over 6 h a day under sunny conditions for the weather circumstances encountered in South Texas while providing a slightly smaller power output in other weather circumstances. It is a promising self-powered and low-cost installation technique that can be implemented at pedestrian crossings and intersections to alert distracted drivers at the time of pedestrian crossing, which is likely to improve pedestrian safety.


2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (11) ◽  
pp. 118501
Author(s):  
Heng-Jie Chen ◽  
Hang Xue ◽  
Shao-Xiong Li ◽  
Zhen Wang

Author(s):  
R. L. Harne ◽  
K. W. Wang

It has recently been shown that negligible linear stiffness or very small negative stiffness may be the most beneficial stiffness nonlinearities for vibrational energy harvesters due to the broadband, amplified responses which result from such designs. These stiffness characteristics are often achieved by providing axial compression along the length of a harvester beam. Axial compressive forces induced using magnetic or electrostatic effects are often easily tuned; however, electrostatic energy harvesters are practically limited to microscale realizations and magnets are not amenable in a variety of applications, e.g. self-powered biomedical implants or when the harvesters are packaged with particular circuits. On the other hand, mechanically-induced pre-compression methods considered to date are less able to achieve fine control of the applied force which is typically governed by a pre-compression distance that has practical constraints such as resolution and tolerance. This notably limits the harvester’s ability to precisely obtain the desired near-zero or small negative linear stiffness and thus inhibits the favorable dynamical phenomena that lead to high energy conversion performance. Inspired by the wing motor structure of the common diptera (fly), this research explores an alternative energy harvester design and configuration that considerably improves control over pre-compression factors and their influence upon performance-improving dynamics. A pre-compressed harvester beam having an axial suspension on an end is investigated through theoretical and numerical studies and experimental efforts. Suspension and pre-loading adjustments are found to enable comprehensive variation over the resulting dynamics. It is shown that the incorporation of adjustable axial suspension into the design of pre-compressed energy harvester beams is therefore a versatile, all-mechanical means to enhance the performance of such devices and ensure favorable dynamics are retained across a wide range of excitation conditions.


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