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Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 49818

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Prof. Dr. Elie Lefeuvre

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Guest Editor

Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, CNRS, University of Paris-Sud, 91120 Palaiseau, France
Interests: physical sensors; energy harvesting; MEMS; nanotechnology

Prof. Dr. Sang-Jae Kim

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Jeju National University, Jeju, Jeju-si 63243, Republic of Korea
Interests: self-charging power cell; hybrid fuel cell; energy harvesting; nanogenerator; nanobiosensor
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Dear Colleagues,

Exploring alternative energy sources without any negative impact to the environment, society and reduction of energy generation dependency on fossil fuels, nuclear and oil sources is a prerequisite for designing, and in the development of new types of energy harvesting technologies and novel energy materials. At a smaller scale, in terms of energy, the massive developments of wireless electronic devices over the last decade, for numerous consumer, industrial and medical applications, raises the problem of their autonomy in terms of energy. This motivates the development of miniaturized designs with high energy conversion efficiency, cost-effective fabrication techniques and the growth of nanostructures on flexible/non-flexible substrates for wearable/portable applications. Piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) technology is one among them, with stable electric outputs under harsh environments, low leakage currents and a broad choice of inorganic/organic nanostructure materials for energy generation, and will find new possibilities in research. PEH utilizes and converts waste mechanical energy in society, such as human body motion, ocean waves, wind/water motions and low frequency machine vibrations into useful electrical signals to drive low-power consumer electronic devices. Traditional PEH technology are developed with 1D and 2D nanostructures, and extend to flexible low piezoelectric coefficient based organic/bio-polymers. The generated energy from PEH devices is clean, eco-friendly, cost-effective and the generation process does not produce any polluted carbons. The output power range is in microwatt per square meter range, which is enough to power light emitting diodes and liquid crystal displays without using any storage components or additional circuits. Recent innovations directed towards the enhancement of PEH output power include functionality (by developing the smart composite structures (inorganic/organic)), self-polarized films, flexible in device designs and a biocompatible nature. Moreover, few PEH devices have dual functionality, i.e., can work as sustainable independent power source and also can work as a sensing unit to measure physical/chemical/biological/optical stimuli. Over the last decade, PEH technology has been studied extensively and has been extended to various application fields: Self-powered power sources for consumer electronics, implantable bio-sensors, structural health monitoring systems, security systems and underwater sensors. In such systems, the interface circuits were shown to be crucial elements in the energy conversion chain. This raised interest in the development of novel techniques and dedicated circuits to extract, more efficiently, the energy converted by piezoelectric transducers. Specific energy saving strategies and power management approaches were also developed to adequately store harvested energy and to deliver it in an appropriate form and amount to the application.

Prof. Elie Lefeuvre
Prof. Sang Jae Kim
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Piezoelectric harvester
Piezoelectric nanomaterials
Self-powered systems
Piezoelectric energy extraction techniques
Interface circuits
Sustainable independent power source
Smart piezoelectric composite structures
Harnessing waste mechanical energy
Self-polarization
Piezoelectric coefficient
Electro-mechanical coupling coefficient
Alternative energy harvesting technologies

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 7934 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study and Parameter Optimization of a Magnetic Coupled Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

by Xiaobo Rui, Yibo Li, Yue Liu, Xiaolei Zheng and Zhoumo Zeng

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(12), 2609; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8122609 - 13 Dec 2018

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 3186

Abstract

Piezoelectric energy harvesting is a promising way to develop self-sufficient systems. Structural design and parameter optimization are key issues to improve the performance in applications. This paper presents a magnetic coupled piezoelectric energy harvester to increase the output and bandwidth. A lumped parameter model considering the static position is established and various modes are simulated. This paper focuses on the “Low frequency repulsion mode”, which is more practical. The experiment platform is built with the Macro Fiber Composite (MFC) material, and the results are consistent with the analytical simulation. The optimization process of some key parameters, such as magnets spacing and flux density, is carried out. The results show that there is a corresponding optimal spacing for each flux density, which is positive correlated. With the optimized parameter design, the system achieves peak electrical power of 3.28 mW under the harmonic excitation of 4 m/s². Compared with the conventional single cantilever harvester, the operated bandwidth is increased by 66.7% and the peak output power is increased by 35.0% in experiment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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19 pages, 2315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Using a Multi-Stepped Beam with Rectangular Cavities

by Ramalingam Usharani, Gandhi Uma, Mangalanathan Umapathy and Seung-Bok Choi

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(11), 2091; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8112091 - 29 Oct 2018

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4130

Abstract

In vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvesters, one of the major critical issues is increasing the bandwidth and output voltage simultaneously. This manuscript explores a new technique for broadening the operating frequency range and enhancing the output voltage of the piezoelectric material-based energy harvester by appropriate structural tailoring. The wide bandwidth and the improvement in harvested output are accomplished by means of a multi-stepped cantilever beam shaped with rectangular cavities. The harvester is mathematically modeled and analyzed for modal characteristics. It was demonstrated from the outcome that the first two consecutive mode frequencies could be brought closer and the output power was large at both the resonant frequencies compared to the regular cantilever beam energy harvester. The results obtained from experimentation were in agreement with analytical results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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45 pages, 521 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Asymptotic and Spectral Analysis of a Model of the Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with the Timoshenko Beam as a Substructure

by Marianna A. Shubov

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(9), 1434; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8091434 - 22 Aug 2018

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2707

Abstract

Mathematical analysis of the well known model of a piezoelectric energy harvester is presented. The harvester is designed as a cantilever Timoshenko beam with piezoelectric layers attached to its top and bottom faces. Thin, perfectly conductive electrodes are covering the top and bottom faces of the piezoelectric layers. These electrodes are connected to a resistive load. The model is governed by a system of three partial differential equations. The first two of them are the equations of the Timoshenko beam model and the third one represents Kirchhoff’s law for the electric circuit. All equations are coupled due to the piezoelectric effect. We represent the system as a single operator evolution equation in the Hilbert state space of the system. The dynamics generator of this evolution equation is a non-selfadjoint matrix differential operator with compact resolvent. The paper has two main results. Both results are explicit asymptotic formulas for eigenvalues of this operator, i.e., the modal analysis for the electrically loaded system is performed. The first set of the asymptotic formulas has remainder terms of the order

O (\frac{1}{n})

, where n is the number of an eigenvalue. These formulas are derived for the model with variable physical parameters. The second set of the asymptotic formulas has remainder terms of the order

O (\frac{1}{n^{2}})

, and is derived for a less general model with constant parameters. This second set of formulas contains extra term depending on the electromechanical parameters of the model. It is shown that the spectrum asymptotically splits into two disjoint subsets, which we call the

α

-branch eigenvalues and the

θ

-branch eigenvalues. These eigenvalues being multiplied by “i” produce the set of the vibrational modes of the system. The

α

-branch vibrational modes are asymptotically located on certain vertical line in the left half of the complex plane and the

θ

-branch is asymptotically close to the imaginary axis. By having such spectral and asymptotic results, one can derive the asymptotic representation for the mode shapes and for voltage output. Asymptotics of vibrational modes and mode shapes is instrumental in the analysis of control problems for the harvester. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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14 pages, 2907 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Experimental Investigation of a Piezoelectric Rotation Energy Harvester Using Bistable and Frequency Up-Conversion Mechanisms

by Zhengqiu Xie, Jitao Xiong, Deqi Zhang, Tao Wang, Yimin Shao and Wenbin Huang

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(9), 1418; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8091418 - 21 Aug 2018

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 5125

Abstract

Harvesting energy from rotational motion for powering low-power electrical devices is attracting increasing research interest in recent years. In this paper, a magnetic-coupled buckled beam piezoelectric rotation energy harvester (MBBP-REH) with bistable and frequency up-conversion is presented to harvest low speed rotational energy with a broadband. A buckled beam attached with piezoelectric patches under dynamical axial load enables the harvester to achieve high output power under small excitation force. The electromechanical coupling dynamical model is developed to characterize the MBBP-REH. Both the simulations and experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the harvesters in various conditions under different excitations. The experimental results indicate that the proposed harvester is applicable for low speed rotation and can generate stable output power under wideband rotating excitation. For the harvester with two magnets that produce attractive forces with the center magnet of the buckled beam, the average power is 682.7 μW and the maximum instantaneous power is 1450 μW at 360 r/min. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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11 pages, 3954 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Formation and Characterization of Various ZnO/SiO₂-Stacked Layers for Flexible Micro-Energy Harvesting Devices

by Chongsei Yoon, Buil Jeon and Giwan Yoon

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(7), 1127; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8071127 - 11 Jul 2018

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3328

Abstract

In this paper, we present a study of various ZnO/SiO₂-stacked thin film structures for flexible micro-energy harvesting devices. Two groups of micro-energy harvesting devices, SiO₂/ZnO/SiO₂ micro-energy generators (SZS-MGs) and ZnO/SiO₂/ZnO micro-energy generators (ZSZ-MGs), were fabricated by stacking both SiO₂ and ZnO thin films, and the resulting devices were characterized. With a particular interest in the fabrication of flexible devices, all the ZnO and SiO₂ thin films were deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. The effects of the thickness and/or position of the SiO₂ films on the device performance were investigated by observing the variations of output voltage in comparison with that of a control sample. As a result, compared to the ZnO single-layer device, all the ZSZ-MGs showed much better output voltages, while all the SZS-MG showed only slightly better output voltages. Among the ZSZ-MGs, the highest output voltages were obtained from the ZSZ-MGs where the SiO₂ thin films were deposited using a deposition power of 150 W. Overall, the device performance seems to depend significantly on the position as well as the thickness of the SiO₂ thin films in the ZnO/SiO₂-stacked multilayer structures, in addition to the processing conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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18 pages, 5878 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Study on Important Issues for Estimating the Effectiveness of the Proposed Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters under Volume Constraints

by Noha Aboulfotoh and Jens Twiefel

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(7), 1075; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8071075 - 2 Jul 2018

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3224

Abstract

This study presents theoretical investigations on the effectiveness criteria for piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) under volume constraints. Firstly, the importance of the volume consideration is investigated. The powers of different PEHs of variant volumes are investigated under the same resonance frequency. It is found that the power output is strongly dependent on the volume of the transducer. Secondly, the impact of the mechanical damping, the electrical damping, the volume of motion, the normalized power to the volume, and the applied load resistance on the power output are investigated. The investigations are analyzed to find the optimized conditions of the applied load and the excitation frequency in order to optimize the power output under volume constraints. The proposed procedure for estimating the effectiveness is to compare the performance of the proposed PEHs to a rectangular-shaped PEH of the same volume. An optimized structure for a rectangular-shaped PEH to be used as the reference is investigated. The power output under the optimized conditions is derived. In order to estimate the effectiveness of the proposed PEHs, the average power over a band of frequencies from the proposed structure must be compared to the average power over the same band of frequencies from the optimized reference harvester. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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15 pages, 3880 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison Among Different Rainfall Energy Harvesting Structures

by Fabio Viola

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(6), 955; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8060955 - 9 Jun 2018

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 6585

Abstract

In this paper, an experimental comparison between different rainfall harvesting devices through the study of the electrical rectifying circuit is proposed. In more detail, three harvesting structures are considered: the cantilever, the bridge and the floating circle. Different waveforms were acquired and discussed. The processed data were compared in order to suggest the best choice for the rectifying circuit, from the simplest one to that most frequently endorsed in the technical literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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20 pages, 25002 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of Piezoelectric Harvesters with Integrated Trimming Devices

by Alberto Doria, Cristian Medè, Giulio Fanti, Daniele Desideri, Alvise Maschio and Federico Moro

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(4), 557; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8040557 - 4 Apr 2018

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4863

Abstract

Piezoelectric cantilever harvesters have a large power output at their natural frequency, but in some applications the frequency of ambient vibrations is different from the harvester’s frequency and/or ambient vibrations are periodic with some harmonic components. To cope with these operating conditions harvesters with integrated trimming devices (ITDs) are proposed. Some prototypes are developed with the aid of an analytical model and tested with an impulsive method. Results show that a small trimming device can lower the main resonance frequency of a piezoelectric harvester of the same extent as a larger tip mass and, moreover, it generates at high frequency a second resonance peak. A multi-physics numerical finite element (FE) model is developed for predicting the generated power and for performing a stress-strain analysis of harvesters with ITDs. The numerical model is validated on the basis of the experimental results. Several configurations of ITDs are conceived and studied. Numerical results show that the harvesters with ITDs are able to generate relevant power at two frequencies, owing to the particular shape of the modes of vibration. The stress in the harvesters with ITDs is smaller than the stress in the harvester with a tip mass trimmed to the same frequency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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11 pages, 3371 KiB

Open AccessArticle

P(VDF-TrFE) Film on PDMS Substrate for Energy Harvesting Applications

by Soaram Kim, Itmenon Towfeeq, Yongchang Dong, Sean Gorman, Apparao M. Rao and Goutam Koley

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(2), 213; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8020213 - 31 Jan 2018

Cited by 58 | Viewed by 7322

Abstract

We have developed and demonstrated a highly flexible P(VDF-TrFE) film-based energy harvesting device on a PDMS substrate, avoiding any complex composites and patterned structures. The structural and electrical properties of the P(VDF-TrFE) film was investigated using multiple characterization techniques and an optimized film of 7 µm thickness was used for the energy harvesting application. The device, with Ti/Ni metal contacts, was driven by a shaker providing an acceleration of 1.75 g, and frequencies varying from 5 to 30 Hz. The energy harvesting performance of the final fabricated device was tested using the shaker, and resulted in a maximum output capacitor voltage of 4.4 V, which successfully powered a set of 27 LEDs after several minutes of charging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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4759 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bandwidth Widening of Piezoelectric Cantilever Beam Arrays by Mass-Tip Tuning for Low-Frequency Vibration Energy Harvesting

by Eduard Dechant, Feodor Fedulov, Leonid Y. Fetisov and Mikhail Shamonin

Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(12), 1324; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7121324 - 19 Dec 2017

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 7840

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks usually rely on internal permanent or rechargeable batteries as a power supply, causing high maintenance efforts. An alternative solution is to supply the entire system by harvesting the ambient energy, for example, by transducing ambient vibrations into electric energy by virtue of the piezoelectric effect. The purpose of this paper is to present a simple engineering approach for the bandwidth optimization of vibration energy harvesting systems comprising multiple piezoelectric cantilevers (PECs). The frequency tuning of a particular cantilever is achieved by changing the tip mass. It is shown that the bandwidth enhancement by mass tuning is limited and requires several PECs with close resonance frequencies. At a fixed frequency detuning between subsequent PECs, the achievable bandwidth shows a saturation behavior as a function of the number of cantilevers used. Since the resonance frequency of each PEC is different, the output voltages at a particular excitation frequency have different amplitudes and phases. A simple power-transfer circuit where several PECs with an individual full wave bridge rectifier are connected in parallel allows one to extract the electrical power close to the theoretical maximum excluding the diode losses. The experiments performed on two- and three-PEC arrays show reasonable agreement with simulations and demonstrate that this power-transfer circuit additionally influences the frequency dependence of the harvested electrical power. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: Materials, Devices and Application)

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