Ceramic-Based Piezoelectric Material for Energy Harvesting Using Hybrid Excitation

Abstract

This paper analyzes the energy efficiency of a Micro Fiber Composite (MFC) piezoelectric system. It is based on a smart Lead Zirconate Titanate material that consists of a monolithic PZT (piezoelectric ceramic) wafer, which is a ceramic-based piezoelectric material. An experimental test rig consisting of a wind tunnel and a developed measurement system was used to conduct the experiment. The developed test rig allowed changing the air velocity around the tested bluff body and the frequency of forced vibrations as well as recording the output voltage signal and linear acceleration of the tested object. The mechanical vibrations and the air flow were used to find the optimal performance of the piezoelectric energy harvesting system. The performance of the proposed piezoelectric wind energy harvester was tested for the same design, but of different masses. The geometry of the hybrid bluff body is a combination of cuboid and cylindrical shapes. The results of testing five bluff bodies for a range of wind tunnel air flow velocities from 4 to 15 m/s with additional vibration excitation frequencies from 0 to 10 Hz are presented. The conducted tests revealed the areas of the highest voltage output under specific excitation conditions that enable supplying low-power sensors with harvested energy.

Performance Analysis of a Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting System

“…This research continues the research discussed in [14] that focused on, e.g. the same bluff body but mounted on a freely moving elastic beam.…”

“…A GUNT HM 170 open wind tunnel with a closed measurement area was used in the experiment. The wind tunnel is described in detail in [14]. Its measurement section is a square of 300 mm x 300 mm in cross section, and the test object was in the centre.…”

“…The system is then adjusted to operation by its resonance frequency [12] or operating around it by subharmonic solutions [13]. Our previous research [14] attempted to find such a system's design which is prone to the vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) effect [15] at relatively low wind velocities and the galloping effect [16] at relatively high wind velocities. The research on wind energy harvesting systems [3,17] shows that the circular bluff-body has the oscillating solution by vortex-induced vibrations, while the square-shaped body has the highest power output by the galloping effect.…”

“…It is 300 µm thick and its capacitance is 1.9 nF (±20%). This particular piezoelectric element is described in detail in [14].…”

Dynamic Design of a Quad-Stable Piezoelectric Energy Harvester via Bifurcation Theory

“…Wang et al [ 13 ] designed a piezoelectric wind energy harvester with Y-shaped attachments on the bluff body, which confirmed the transition from vortex-induced vibration to galloping. Considering that both vortex-induced vibrations and the galloping effect have a desirable impact on high amplitudes, Ambrożkiewicz et al [ 14 ] proposed a PEH whose tip-mass is a mixed design of the bluff body with different shapes of cross-section. This device can extract energy from its environment at lower air velocity values.…”