Global nonlinear distributed-parameter model of parametrically excited piezoelectric energy harvesters

A global nonlinear distributed-parameter model for a piezoelectric energy harvester under parametric excitation is developed. The harvester consists of a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass. The derived model accounts for geometric, inertia, piezoelectric, and fluid drag nonlinearities. A reduced-order model is derived by using the Euler–Lagrange principle and Gauss law and implementing a Galerkin discretization. The method of multiple scales is used to obtain analytical expressions for the tip deflection, output voltage, and harvested power near the first principal parametric resonance. The effects of the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients, the quadratic damping, and the excitation amplitude on the output voltage and harvested electrical power are quantified. The results show that a one-mode approximation in the Galerkin approach is not sufficient to evaluate the performance of the harvester. Furthermore, the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients have an important influence on the harvester’s behavior in terms of softening or hardening. Depending on the excitation frequency, it is determined that, for small values of the quadratic damping, there is an overhang associated with a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation.     

Piezoelectric energy harvesting from concurrent vortex-induced vibrations and base excitations

We investigate the potential of using a piezoelectric energy harvester to concurrently harness energy from base excitations and vortex-induced vibrations. The harvester consists of a multilayered piezoelectric cantilever beam with a circular cylinder tip mass attached to its free end which is placed in a uniform air flow and subjected to direct harmonic excitations. We model the fluctuating lift coefficient by a van der Pol wake oscillator. The Euler–Lagrange principle and the Galerkin procedure are used to derive a nonlinear distributed-parameter model for a harvester under a combination of vibratory base excitations and vortex-induced vibrations. Linear and nonlinear analyses are performed to investigate the effects of the electrical load resistance, wind speed, and base acceleration on the coupled frequency, electromechanical damping, and performance of the harvester. It is demonstrated that, when the wind speed is in the pre- or post-synchronization regions, its associated electromechanical damping is increased and hence a reduction in the harvested power is obtained. When the wind speed is in the lock-in or synchronization region, the results show that there is a significant improvement in the level of the harvested power which can attain 150 % compared to using two separate harvesters. The results also show that an increase of the base acceleration results in a reduction in the vortex-induced vibrations effects, an increase of the difference between the resonant excitation frequency and the pull-out frequency, and a significant effects associated with the quenching phenomenon.     

Nonlinear characterization of concurrent energy harvesting from galloping and base excitations

An energy harvester is proposed to concurrently harness energy from base and galloping excitations. This harvester consists of a triangular cross-sectional tip mass attached to a multilayered piezoelectric cantilever beam and placed in an incompressible flow and subjected to a harmonic base excitation in the cross-flow direction. A coupled nonlinear-distributed-parameter model is developed representing the dynamics of the transverse degree of freedom and the generated voltage. The galloping force and moment are modeled by using a nonlinear quasi-steady approximation. Under combined loadings and when the excitation frequency is away from the global natural frequency of the harvester, the response of the harvester mainly contains these two harmonic frequencies. Thus, the harvester’s response is generally aperiodic and is either periodic with large period (i.e., period- \(n\) ), or quasi-periodic, or chaotic. To characterize the harvester’s response under a combination of vibratory base excitations and aerodynamic loading, we use modern methods of nonlinear dynamics, such as phase portraits, power spectra, and Poincaré sections. A further analysis is then performed to determine the effects of the wind speed, frequency excitation, base acceleration, and electrical load resistance on the performance of the harvester under separate loadings.     

Spiral piezoelectric transducer in torsional motion as low-frequency power harvester

A structure consisting of a spiral piezoelectric transducer and a concentrated mass is proposed as a low-frequency piezoelectric power harvester. A theoretical model is developed for the system from the theory of piezoelectricity. An analysis is performed to demonstrate the low-frequency nature of the system. Other basic characteristics of the power harvester including the output power, voltage, and efficiency are also calculated and examined.     

Investigations on the presence of electrical frequency on the characteristics of energy harvesters under base and galloping excitations

The characteristics and performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters concurrently subjected to galloping and base excitations when using a complex electrical circuit are studied. The considered energy harvester is composed of a bilayered cantilever beam with a square cylindrical structure at its tip. Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, nonlinear quasi-steady hypothesis, and Galerkin method are used to develop a reduced order model of this system. The electrical circuitry of the harvester consists of a load resistance, a capacitance, and an inductance. The impacts of the electrical components of the harvester’s circuitry, the wind speed, and the base excitation frequency and acceleration on the broadband characteristics of the harvester, quenching phenomenon, and appearance of new nonlinear behaviors are deeply investigated and discussed. Different methods were used to characterize the new nonlinear phenomena that took place due to mechanical electrical interaction like the power spectrum and time history. When both coupled frequencies of electrical and mechanical types exist and are far from each other, it is shown that the quenching phenomenon is only related to the coupled frequency of mechanical type. It was also proven that this configuration results on high harvested power with low displacement near the electrical frequency. On the other hand, for a well-defined choice of the electrical components, the results show that a broadband configuration of the harvester can be designed. It is also indicated that the quenching phenomenon interacts with the appearance of hysteresis regions that depends on the value of the base acceleration and initial conditions. Moreover, it was shown that the presence of this inductance may result in broadband system harvesting more power from both galloping and base excitation.     

Modeling and analysis of piezoaeroelastic energy harvesters

This work investigates the influence of structural and aerodynamic nonlinearities on the dynamic behavior of a piezoaeroelastic system. The system is composed of a rigid airfoil supported by nonlinear torsional and flexural springs in the pitch and plunge motions, respectively, with a piezoelectric coupling attached to the plunge degree of freedom. The analysis shows that the effect of the electrical load resistance on the flutter speed is negligible in comparison to the effects of the linear spring coefficients. The effects of aerodynamic nonlinearities and nonlinear plunge and pitch spring coefficients on the system’s stability near the bifurcation are determined from the nonlinear normal form. This is useful to characterize the effects of different parameters on the system’s output and ensure that subcritical or “catastrophic” bifurcation does not take place. Numerical solutions of the coupled equations for two different configurations are then performed to determine the effects of varying the load resistance and the nonlinear spring coefficients on the limit-cycle oscillations (LCO) in the pitch and plunge motions, the voltage output and the harvested power.     

低速水流下不同截面形状质量块压电能量收集器的实验研究

本文设计了一种适用于低流速水流中的悬臂梁式压电能量收集器,利用明渠流弯道水槽对五种质量相同、截面形状不同质量块的压电能量收集器进行实验研究,通过改变水的流速,得到不同质量块能量收集器收集功率和频率随流速的变化规律并进行分析。结果表明：在实验流速范围内,各质量块均存在起振流速,当低于起振流速时,收集的均方根功率（RMS Power）约为零,超过起振流速后,收集功率随流速增加而改变;形状相似的质量块,起振流速较为接近,四棱柱的起振流速最低,圆柱次之,三棱柱的最大;质量块截面形状不同,能量收集器性能不同,其中以三棱柱（70°）的输出性能最好,在流速为0.54 m/s时收集到的最大功率为2.02mW,分别是圆柱、四棱柱（50）和三棱柱（60°）的1.06、2.58、1.36倍。本文的研究可以为类似压电能量收集器的设计提供借鉴。     

基于等效电路法的变三角截面驰振压电能量收集研究

随着能源危机的逐渐加剧,人们对压电俘能器研究的投入也与日俱增,目前常见的研究压电俘能器的模拟方法只能研究其接入简单的单一电阻负载电路时的性能,且不能解决压电俘能器的高强度直流电路耦合问题。因此,本文借助二阶范德波尔控制方程将压电俘能器的主要部件等效为电子元件,进而基于等效电路法建立了与变三角截面驰振压电振动俘能器相对应的等效电路模型。借助风洞实验验证了所建立的等效电路模型的准确性。采用该模型研究了外接电路,钝体顶角,外接电阻和来流速度对变三角截面驰振压电俘能器输出电压,输出功率和响应位移的影响,结果表明,随着电阻的增大,输出电压逐渐增大且增长率逐渐减小。交直流电路的最佳负载分别为1.05 MΩ和1.4 MΩ,当风速为7.03 m/s,钝体顶角为90°时,交直流电路输出电压和输出功率的峰值分别为41.34 V,0.974 mW和50.8 V,0.616 mW。随着钝体顶角的增大,输出电压,输出功率和响应位移均逐渐增大且增大的速度逐渐减小。等效电路模型可以高效,准确地对不同结构参数下和外界电路下的压电振动俘能器的输出功率,输出电压,响应位移及其影响因素进行研究,所提出的等效电路模型于加快对压电振动俘能器的研究与推广应用具有一定意义。     

Nonlinear energy harvesting from vibratory disc-shaped piezoelectric laminates

Implementing resonators with geometrical nonlinearities in vibrational energy harvesting systems leads to considerable enhancement of their operational bandwidths. This advantage of nonlinear devices in comparison to their linear counterparts is much more obvious especially at small-scale where transition to nonlinear regime of vibration occurs at moderately small amplitudes of the base excitation. In this paper the nonlinear behavior of a disc-shaped piezoelectric laminated harvester considering midplane-stretching effect is investigated. Extended Hamilton's principle is exploited to extract electromechanically coupled governing partial differential equations of the system. The equations are firstly order-reduced and then analytically solved implementing perturbation method of multiple scales. A nonlinear finite element method(FEM) simulation of the system is performed additionally for the purpose of verification which shows agreement with the analytical solution to a large extent. The frequency response of the output power at primary resonance of the harvester is calculated to investigate the effect of nonlinearity on the system performance. Effect of various parameters including mechanical quality factor, external load impedance and base excitation amplitude on the behavior of the system are studied. Findings indicate that in the nonlinear regime both output power and operational bandwidth of the harvester will be enhanced by increasing the mechanical quality factor which can be considered as a significant advantage in comparison to linear harvesters in which these two factors vary in opposite ways as quality factor is changed.     

Phenomena and modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting from freely oscillating cylinders

We investigate energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibrations of a freely moving rigid circular cylinder with a piezoelectric transducer attached to its transverse degree of freedom. The power levels that can be generated from these vibrations and variations of these levels with the freestream velocity are determined. A mathematical model that accounts for the coupled lift force, cylinder motion, and harvested voltage is presented. Linear analysis is performed to determine the effect of the electrical load resistance of the transducer on the natural frequency of the cylinder and the onset of synchronization (the shedding frequency is equal to the cylinder oscillating frequency) region. The impact of the nonlinearities on the cylinder response and harvested energy is investigated. The results show that the load resistance shifts the onset of synchronization to higher freestream velocities. For two different system parameters, the results show that the nonlinearities result in a hardening behavior for some values of the load resistance.     

带附加质量块的压电圆板能量采集器振动分析

基于圆板的压电能量采集技术在取代化学电池为低功耗电子器件提供能源方面具有巨大的潜能. 本文通过理论建模和数值仿真研究了考虑附加质量接触面积的压电圆板能量采集器的采集性能. 首先, 基于基尔霍夫薄板理论, 用广义哈密顿原理推导了带附加质量块的压电圆板能量采集器的机电耦合方程, 并用伽辽金法对方程近似离散, 通过离散方程得到电压、功率输出和最优负载阻抗的闭合解. 用有限元仿真对所提出的理论模型进行了验证, 结果表明该理论模型可以成功地预测压电圆板能量采集器输出电压和功率. 最后, 基于闭合解探讨了负载阻抗、附加质量块、压电圆板的内外半径等相关参数对压电圆板能量采集器固有频率、输出电压和功率的影响. 结果表明, 当质量块与复合板的接触半径足够小(本文中接触半径小于板半径的1/14)时, 质量块与复合圆板的接触面积可以忽略; 相较于无孔的压电片, 内径位于2.5 ~ 4 mm范围内的压电片可以提高能量采集器的采集性能; 附加质量、压电片外径和负载阻抗的合理选择既可以降低压电圆板的固有频率, 还可以提高其采集性能.      

Incident flow effects on the performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters from galloping vibrations

In this paper, we investigate experimentally the concept of energy harvesting from galloping oscillations with a focus on wake and turbulence effects. The harvester is composed of a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with a square cross-section tip mass. In one case, the harvester is placed in the wake of another galloping harvester with the objective of determining the wake effects on the response of the harvester. In the second case, meshes were placed upstream of the harvester with the objective of investigating the effects of upstream turbulence on the response of the harvester. The results show that both wake effects and upstream turbulence significantly affect the response of the harvester. Depending on the spacing between the two squares and the opening size of the mesh, wake and upstream turbulence can positively enhance the level of the harvested power.     

Accurate modeling,comparative analysis,and performance enhancement of broadband piezoelectric energy harvesters with single and dual magnetic forces

The accurate electromechanical modeling and effectiveness of a piezoelectric energy harvester having dual magnetic forces at its tip is evaluated for low-frequency excitation purposes. To accurately represent the magnetic force, the exact finite element magnetic force is accurately fitted with a fifth-order polynomial representation in order to use it for low spacing distances between the two magnets. A comparative study is then carried out between the performances of piezoelectric energy harvesters having single and dual magnetic forces. It is indicated that hardening nonlinear behaviors take place in the dual attractive magnets compared to softening behaviors in the single magnet design. Static and eigenvalue problem analyses are also performed in order to determine the impacts of the spacing distance between the magnets on the static deflection and fundamental natural frequency of the energy harvester. The results show that the inclusion of a second magnetic force with an attractive interaction results in a delay in the static pull-in and a decrease in the fundamental natural frequency for same spacing distances. After that, a nonlinear distributed-parameter model is derived using the Galerkin discretization and used to study the performance and effectiveness of a piezoelectric energy harvester with dual attractive magnetic forces. The results show that the attractive dual magnets with same spacing distances lead to the presence of broadband resonance regions when the spacing distance between the magnets decreases to lower values. In addition, unlike the dual magnetic forces configuration which has only cubic nonlinearity, it is demonstrated that the single magnetic force configuration results in the presence of the quadratic nonlinearity which allows the energy harvester to have a softening behavior.     

Enhancement of power harvesting from piezoaeroelastic systems

We investigate the effects of varying the eccentricity between the gravity axis and the elastic axis on the level of energy harvested from a piezoaeroelastic energy harvester consisting of a pitching and plunging rigid airfoil supported by nonlinear springs. The normal form of the dynamics of the harvester near the Hopf bifurcation is used to determine the critical nonlinear coefficients of the springs and maximize the harvested power for different eccentricities. Two configurations are evaluated in terms of the power generated from limit cycle oscillations and a range of operating wind speeds. The impact of the load resistance on the harvested power is also assessed.     

翼型颤振压电俘能器的输出特性研究

压电俘能器能够为自然界中低功率的微机电系统持续供能. 为了模拟机翼的沉浮?俯仰二自由度运动和有效俘获气动弹性振动能量, 本文提出一种新颖的翼型颤振压电俘能器. 基于非定常气动力模型, 推导翼型颤振压电俘能器流?固?电耦合场的数学模型. 建立有限元模型, 模拟机翼的沉浮?俯仰二自由度运动, 获得机翼附近的涡旋脱落和流场特性. 搭建风洞实验系统, 制作压电俘能器样机. 利用实验验证理论和仿真模型的正确性, 仿真分析压电俘能器结构参数对其气动弹性振动响应和俘获性能的影响. 结果表明: 理论分析、仿真模拟和实验研究获得的输出电压具有较好的一致性, 验证建立数学和仿真模型的正确性. 仿真分析获得机翼附近的压力场变化云图, 表明交替的压力差驱动机翼发生二自由度沉浮?俯仰运动. 当风速超过颤振起始速度时, 压电俘能器发生颤振, 并表现为极限环振荡. 当偏心距为0.3和风速为16 m/s时, 可获得最大输出电压为17.88 V和输出功率为1.278 mW. 功率密度为7.99 mW/cm3, 相比较于其他压电俘能器, 能实现优越的俘获性能. 研究结果对设计更高效的翼型颤振压电俘能器提供重要的指导意义.      

等效刚度对非线性压电俘能系统性能影响研究

基于Hamilton原理,考虑几何非线性和梁的不可伸长条件,建立了五层压电双晶片叠合梁俘能器在直接和参数激励作用下的运动微分方程。利用Galerkin法和谐波平衡法获得了俘能器的位移、输出电压和输出功率的解析解。引入随时间变化的扰动,提出了非线性方程解的稳定性条件。为了对压电俘能器的结构-性能关系进行综合分析,研究了被动层的配置形式、被动层与主动层的厚度比和弹性模量对压电俘能系统性能的影响。结果表明,在叠合梁厚度不变的情况下,采用五层的压电双晶片叠合结构,选择合理的被动层与主动层厚度比、被动层弹性模量、被动层厚度比和负载电阻,可以有效提高能量俘获的效率。     

基于人体运动的压电-电磁混合式振动能量采集研究

将人体运动产生的动能转化为可利用的电能为传感器供电一直是能量采研究中的一个热点。如何有效利用人体运动,增强环境适应能力以及提高能量采集性能仍是俘能研究中需要解决的关键问题。本文基于人体运动特性,设计了一种新型的混合式能量采集器,同时具有压电和电磁转化机制。压电俘能是基于压电梁变形产生电能,电磁发电机采用堆叠磁组构型来切割线圈产生电动势。首先建立了混合式能量采集器的动力学理论模型,用来描述输出电压特性,并与实验进行了对比验证。理论与实验研究均表明,混合式俘能器的输出电压在一定激励频率范围内出现两个波峰。通过调节压电梁长度,可以改变峰值大小以及两个峰值间的频段范围。人体运动实验表明,混合式俘能器中可以在短时间内提供较高的电压输出,比如当跑步速度为5km/h时,3s内就可以输出1.1V直流电压驱动传感器工作;跑步时长为30s时,传感器正常工作时常可以达到77s。本文设计的混合式俘能器不仅可以快速供电,还具有较强的续航能力,这为电池充电或传感器供电提供了潜在的应用价值。     

Power harvesting from transverse galloping of square cylinder

The concept of exploiting galloping of square cylinders to harvest energy is investigated. The energy is harvested by attaching a piezoelectric transducer to the transverse degree of freedom. A representative model that accounts for the coupled cylinder displacement and harvested voltage is used to determine the levels of the harvested power. The focus is on the effect of the Reynolds number on the aerodynamic force, the onset of galloping, and the level of the harvested power. The quasi steady approximation is used to model the aerodynamic loads. A linear analysis is performed to determine the effects of the electrical load resistance and the Reynolds number on the onset of galloping, which is due to a Hopf bifurcation. We derive the normal form of the dynamic system near the onset of galloping to characterize the type of the instability and to determine the effects of the system parameters on its outputs near the bifurcation. The results show that the electrical load resistance and the Reynolds number play an important role in determining the level of the harvested power and the onset of galloping. The results also show that the maximum levels of harvested power are accompanied with minimum transverse displacements for both low- and high-Reynolds number configurations.     

面向压电振动能量俘获的电能管理电路综述

随着物联网(internet of things, IoT)技术的高速发展, 传统的电池供电方式已经不能满足其供电需求. 利用压电能量俘获技术将机械能转换为电能, 可为IoT提供持久的电能, 具有广阔的应用前景. 本文在讨论压电振动俘能器的电学特性基础上, 全面总结了面向压电振动俘能器的电能管理电路的最新研究成果. 电能管理电路通常由AC-DC变换和DC-DC开关变换器(包括控制算法)两部分组成, 前者用于将压电振动俘能器输出的交流电转变为直流电, 后者用于提高能量俘获效率. 首先, 针对AC-DC变换, 分析了全桥整流器、电压倍增器、同步开关电感电路和同步开关电容电路的工作原理和优缺点. 接着, 重点讨论了用于压电振动俘能器的典型开关变换器电路, 包括电感式、全电容式和变压器式DC-DC开关变换器以及AC-DC开关变换器, 分析了它们的特点和适用场合. 最后, 针对压电振动俘能器的特点, 分析了实现最大能量俘获的几种典型控制算法, 包括最大功率点跟踪、阻抗匹配和同步电荷提取控制算法. 本文通过对面向压电振动俘能器的电能管理电路的全面分析和综述, 揭示了该领域目前存在的瓶颈问题, 并展望了其未来发展方向, 对压电能量俘获自供电系统的研究和开发具有重要的参考价值.      

一种具有新型动力放大器压电悬臂梁俘能器计算模型和解析解

为了提高压电振动能量俘获的效率,提出了一种新型的压电悬臂梁俘能器。新的压电俘能器在悬臂梁固定端安装一个新型动力放大器系统,另一端带有一个有限尺寸的质量块。新型动力放大器由平移及转动约束的弹簧-质量块系统组成。考虑有限尺寸质量块的质量分布效应和平移及转动约束的弹簧刚度等结构参数的影响,利用广义Hamilton原理,针对带有新型动力放大器的压电式悬臂梁俘能器,建立了分布参数型运动微分方程,获得了相应的特征函数,分析了自振频率和能量俘获效果。分析结果表明,考虑质量块偏心距和转动惯量可提高能量俘获效率的预测精度;合理选择动力放大器的平移及转动弹簧刚度可提高能量俘获的效率,降低俘能器的共振频率。