Experimental study of auto-tuning piezoelectric energy harvester attaching balls in boxes

Abstract

In this paper, an auto-tuning piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) based on the cantilever plate is presented by attaching a box to each corner of the free sides and placing a ball in each box. The prototype and supporting experimental fixtures were designed and manufactured. A series of hammering experiments are carried out to measure the natural frequency of the device according to different whole centroid position of the two balls. Seven excitation frequencies are selected to perform auto-tuning experiments, respectively. The two balls roll automatically to make the natural frequency of the structure consistent with the excitation, thereby resonating. The device is subjected to sweeping experiments. It can be seen from open circuit voltagefrequency and power-frequency diagrams that the auto-tuning PEH has a wider work frequency band as TFB and outputs higher voltage and power compared to cases where balls are fixed.

Active tuning of vibration for periodic piezoelectric micro systems: A non-local Mindlin plate finite element approach

“…Meanwhile, since macro scale systems do not present size effect, classical theories of elasto-dynamics can be readily applied to offer accurate predictions. This is confirmed with recent investigations [5,6,7,8,9,10], which led to numerical and experimental prototypes based on macro scale beam and plate coupled models. Micro scale piezoelectric systems, on the contrary, are intended for tuning high-frequency acoustic waves, even ultrasonic waves [11,12,13].…”

Development and performance evaluation of a wheel-type cantilevered piezoelectric rotational energy harvester via an unfixed exciting magnet

“…The existing PREHs can be roughly divided into two categories: contact excitation and non-contact excitation according to the different excitation modes of piezoelectric elements. Regarding the contact excitation mode, the deformation of piezoelectric elements was mostly induced by mechanical plucking (Kuang et al, 2016; Raja et al, 2023; Yi et al, 2021) or impact-based steel balls (Chen et al, 2020; Roundy and Tola, 2014; Yang et al, 2014). Because the direct contact during the mechanical plucking or the impact of steel balls would decrease long-term reliability of the piezoelectric elements and plectra and cause a lot of noise, the contactless magnetic plucking technique was developed to avoid the direct contact between the exciting mechanisms and piezoelectric elements (Dauksevicius et al, 2018; Xie et al, 2018; Xue and Roundy, 2017).…”

Nonlinear modeling and study of rigid-flexible piezoelectric energy harvester with additional frame

“…The tunable design is an effective method to achieve broadband energy harvesting. Chen [9,10] proposed a tunable PEH, and the device can adjust its natrual frequencies by changing the position of rolling balls, which makes the natural frequencies of the device automatically adapt to the ambient's vibration frequency.…”