Toward Harvesting Vibration Energy from Multiple Directions by a Nonlinear Compressive-Mode Piezoelectric Transducer

Abstract

We propose a new concept for harvesting vibration energy from multiple directions. Our approach effectively exploits the nonlinear vibration of a doubly-clamped elastic rod, converting and amplifying excitations to compressive loads in piezoelectric materials. The proposed multi-directional compressivemode piezoelectric energy harvester (MC-PEH) is capable of isotropically harnessing vibration energy from any angle in a plane. Meanwhile, the MC-PEH demonstrates a high voltage output and a wide working bandwidth, along with distinct softening nonlinear phenomena. Theoretical analysis and experimental testing are performed and exhibit good agreement over a range of excitation frequencies. This work enhances the practicability and adaptability of using energy harvesters in complex environment.

A comprehensive review on piezoelectric energy harvesting technology: Materials, mechanisms, and applications

“…222 The most common approach is to introduce nonlinear restoring force for the oscillation system using magnetic or mechanical forces. [259][260][261][262] The results have indicated that, by carefully introducing nonlinearity in the system, the operation bandwidth can be broadened and, hence, allow for more efficient energy transduction under the ambient random and non-stationary sources.…”

Multimodal Shear Wave Deicing Using Fibre Piezoelectric Actuator on Composite for Aircraft Wings

“…Based on previous integration experience for another application [24], MFC will also be integrated into the top layer of the the composite during prepreg stage in order to validate the performance of a fully integrated composite stack. Future work will also investigate the possibility to integrate with MEMS frequency controllers [38], macro-scale [39] and MEMS [40], [41] piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting, FPGA, microcontrollers and thin film power electronics, in order to realise a low power, light weight and thin profile smart shear wave de-icing system that can be integrated into the CFRP composite stack.…”

An impact-based broadband aeroelastic energy harvester for concurrent wind and base vibration energy harvesting

“…Various techniques have been proposed in order to broaden the operational frequency bandwidth and improve the energy conversion efficiency of base vibration energy harvesters. These efforts include developing energy harvesters with close multiple modes (Tang and Yang 2012a;Zhou et al, 2011), introducing nonlinearity by adding magnets to achieve monostable, bistable or tristable responses (Vocca et al, 2012;Tang and Yang 2012b;Zhou et al, 2013Zhou et al, , 2014Harne and Wang, 2013;Daqaq et al, 2014;Yang and Zu, 2016;Yang and Towfighian, 2017), employing frequency up-conversion technique (Gu and Livermore, 2011;Kim et al, 2014;Fu and Yeatman, 2017), etc. Zhou et al (2013) theoretically and experimentally investigated a tristable piezoelectric energy harvester, which was shown to pass easily the potential wells to achieve wide bandwidth with high energy output compared to a bistable energy harvester with a deeper potential well.…”