Energy Harvesting Performance of Dynamic Bimorph Thermopiezoelectric Benders with Arbitrary Support Location

Abstract

A comprehensive theoretical analysis of a dynamic thermoferroelectric pre-stressed bimorph energy harvester is performed. The analysis takes into account pyroelectric and thermal expansion effects and general analytical expressions for the energy conversation coefficients are presented for a bilayer. These derived coefficients (transformation coefficients) are for situation when mechanical, electrical, and thermal fields are present and they are important for sensors, actuators, and energy harvesters. They are a function of material properties, location of boundary conditions, vibration frequency, and in plane compressive/tensile follower force. Numerical simulations of the analytical results are presented. Effects of volume fraction, material properties, applied mechanical loads, and boundary conditions on the harvesting coefficients are shown in the figures. The results for a cantilever and a simply-supported beam are obtained as particular cases. The result for a low frequency (static) system is obtained as a particular case by approaching the vibration frequency to zero. It is shown that volume fraction, material properties, plain compressive/tensile follower force, the location of the boundary conditions, and the vibrational frequency of the bimorph strongly influence the strain distribution, and this in turn influences the charge coefficient and the generation of energy.

Low power energy harvesting systems: State of the art and future challenges

“…Since the piezoelectric energy generators have the greatest density and output, and more flexibility in terms of incorporating into existing devices, piezoelectric materials are well applied and investigated both theoretically and experimentally [51][52][53][54][55][56]. While triboelectric energy generators also have their own benefits, such as highly efficient energy harvesting at low-frequency sources [34,[45][46][47].…”

On the Sensing, Actuating and Energy Harvesting Properties of a Composite Plate with Piezoelectric Patches

“…In 23following [4,5] we define Q 1 , Q 2 and Q 3 as the coefficients of actuating, sensing and energy harvesting respectively. Hence the expression for the total energy in (23) can be used to analyze the structure (Fig.…”

“…Harvesting ambient energy from external sources by using piezoelectric materials can become one of the solutions of this problem [1][2][3]. Since piezoelectric devices have the highest energy density and more flexibility to be integrated into a system, energy harvesting, sensing and actuating with piezoelectric materials are the most widely used and investigated both theoretically [4][5][6][7][8] and experimentally [9][10][11].…”

The effect of the location of piezoelectric patches on the sensing, actuating and energy harvesting properties of a composite plate

“…where p i is the ith component of the vector p = (1,B,1) and constants c ( j) ik are found from satisfying boundary conditions at x = 0, α, β, 1. The total energy (8) can be used to analyze the structure as an actuator, sensor and an energy harvester, where Q 1 , Q 2 and Q 3 are actuating, sensing and energy harvesting coefficients [4,5]. We will investigate Q3 = max (α,β,λ1,λ2)∈D Q 3 , where D is the domain of (α, β, λ 1 , λ 2 ), Q 1 and Q 2 can be investigated in a similar way.…”

“…There are three typical ways of energy conversion: electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric [3]. Since piezoelectric devices have the highest energy density and more flexibility to be integrated into a system, energy harvesting, sensing and actuating with piezoelectric materials are the most widely used and investigated both theoretically [4][5][6][7][8] and experimentally [9][10][11].…”