Micro-Scale Energy Harvesting Devices

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E:Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 February 2023) | Viewed by 14951

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Robotic Materials Department, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Interests: energy harvesters; self-powered sensors; nanogenerators; soft robotics; artificial muscle
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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Ulster University, Belfast BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland, UK
Interests: energy harvesting; energy storage sensors; plasma processing; bio-sensors; energy systems
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Guest Editor
Korea Electric Power Research Institute, 105, Munji-ro, Yooseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea
Interests: energy harvesting; piezoelectric; nanogenerator; soft actuators

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As we are currently entering into a fourth Industrial Revolution, an era of ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing, intelligent robots, self-driving cars, and other devices based on the Internet of Things, a constant source of electrical energy is needed to keep these devices operational. These energy demands compete with the basic energy demands for daily living, which places an exponential pressure on generating energy from traditional sources. Thus, capturing energy through other methods in a safe, cost-effective, efficient, sustainable, and renewable manner is required, microscale energy harvesters, miniaturized devices that harvest energy from the ambient environment (e.g., mechanical motion, heat, electromagnetic waves), have the potential to fulfill all these roles with the most ease, adaptability, and availability. These miniaturized devices have recently undergone significant innovation (e.g., there has been a drastic increase of the output energy harvested), and could be showcased for potential usage for self-powered sensing. This Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers and review articles that are focused on developments for the design, fabrication, integration, and application of microscale energy-harvesting technologies, with particular interest in MEMs-based devices, nanogenerators, and self-powered sensors and systems.

Dr. Steven Zhang
Dr. Navneet Soin
Dr. Jae Yong Cho
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • MEMs
  • energy harvesters
  • nanogenerators
  • Internet of Things
  • self-powered sensors

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4468 KiB  
Article
Internet of Things-Based ECG and Vitals Healthcare Monitoring System
by James Heaney, Jamie Buick, Muhammad Usman Hadi and Navneet Soin
Micromachines 2022, 13(12), 2153; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13122153 - 6 Dec 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6946
Abstract
Health monitoring and its associated technologies have gained enormous importance over the past few years. The electrocardiogram (ECG) has long been a popular tool for assessing and diagnosing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Since the literature on ECG monitoring devices is growing at an exponential [...] Read more.
Health monitoring and its associated technologies have gained enormous importance over the past few years. The electrocardiogram (ECG) has long been a popular tool for assessing and diagnosing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Since the literature on ECG monitoring devices is growing at an exponential rate, it is becoming difficult for researchers and healthcare professionals to select, compare, and assess the systems that meet their demands while also meeting the monitoring standards. This emphasizes the necessity for a reliable reference to guide the design, categorization, and analysis of ECG monitoring systems, which will benefit both academics and practitioners. We present a complete ECG monitoring system in this work, describing the design stages and implementation of an end-to-end solution for capturing and displaying the patient’s heart signals, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and body temperature. The data will be presented on an OLED display, a developed Android application as well as in MATLAB via serial communication. The Internet of Things (IoT) approaches have a clear advantage in tackling the problem of heart disease patient care as they can transform the service mode into a widespread one and alert the healthcare services based on the patient’s physical condition. Keeping this in mind, there is also the addition of a web server for monitoring the patient’s status via WiFi. The prototype, which is compliant with the electrical safety regulations and medical equipment design, was further benchmarked against a commercially available off-the-shelf device, and showed an excellent accuracy of 99.56%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Scale Energy Harvesting Devices)
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16 pages, 4327 KiB  
Article
Micro-Mechanical Investigation of Interfacial Debonding in Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites Using Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) Approach
by Raees Fida Swati, Saad Riffat Qureshi, Muhammad Umer Sohail, Adnan Munir, Omer Masood Qureshi and Abid Ali Khan
Micromachines 2022, 13(8), 1226; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13081226 - 30 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2089
Abstract
The interface debonding in carbon fiber-reinforced polymers is analyzed and evaluated using the extended finite element method (XFEM). In order to accurately evaluate the bonding properties between fibers and matrix, different tests were carried out, including the multiple tests for different orientations to [...] Read more.
The interface debonding in carbon fiber-reinforced polymers is analyzed and evaluated using the extended finite element method (XFEM). In order to accurately evaluate the bonding properties between fibers and matrix, different tests were carried out, including the multiple tests for different orientations to study longitudinal, transversal, and shear properties of unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced composites. Extensive experimentation has been performed in all the different groups and categories with different dimensions and parameters in order to ascertain the values of strength and the prediction of the damage to the structure. The experimental and numerical comparison provided significant trends and data to evaluate the mechanical properties of the interface. The values of stiffness and strength are compared and validated. Development of Representative Volume Element (RVE) for progressive damage model to these damage phenomena has already been performed as a feasibility study for the model, though it is not included in this particular paper. The results of this research for all the experimental and numerical sets can serve as reliable data in the microsimulation of devices and sensitive parameters that include carbon fiber-reinforced light metal matrix composites and makes a better investigative model that contributes to various conditions. It further offers an investigation of the microscopic deformation mechanisms in the composites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Scale Energy Harvesting Devices)
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22 pages, 11327 KiB  
Article
Simulation and Test of a MEMS Arming Device for a Fuze
by Yu Qin, Yanbai Shen, Xiannan Zou and Yongping Hao
Micromachines 2022, 13(8), 1161; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13081161 - 22 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2103
Abstract
To solve the structural strength problem of a MEMS arming device for a fuze, a kind of arming device applied to a certain type of 40 mm grenade is designed. This paper introduces the working principle of the arming device; simulates the shear [...] Read more.
To solve the structural strength problem of a MEMS arming device for a fuze, a kind of arming device applied to a certain type of 40 mm grenade is designed. This paper introduces the working principle of the arming device; simulates the shear pin, rotary pin and locking mechanism in the device; designs a variety of different test tools for test verification; and further increases the explosion reliability and arming safety tests. The results show that the arming device improves the structural strength and can meet the action requirements of a certain type of 40 mm grenade for safety release, as well as the application requirements of explosion reliability and arming safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Scale Energy Harvesting Devices)
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16 pages, 7166 KiB  
Article
Energy Harvester Based on an Eccentric Pendulum and Wiegand Wires
by Yi-Hsin Chen, Chien Lee, Yu-Jen Wang, You-Yu Chang and Yi-Cheng Chen
Micromachines 2022, 13(4), 623; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13040623 - 15 Apr 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2607
Abstract
This study proposed an energy harvester that combines an eccentric pendulum with Wiegand wires to harvest the kinetic energy of a rotating plate. The energy harvester converts the kinetic energy into electrical energy to power sensors mounted on the rotating plate or wheel. [...] Read more.
This study proposed an energy harvester that combines an eccentric pendulum with Wiegand wires to harvest the kinetic energy of a rotating plate. The energy harvester converts the kinetic energy into electrical energy to power sensors mounted on the rotating plate or wheel. The kinetic model is derived from the Euler–Lagrange equation. The eccentric pendulum generates a swing motion from the direction variation of the centrifugal force and the gravitational force. The magnetic circuit is designed such that, during the swing motion, an alternating magnetic field is formed to induce the output voltage of the Wiegand wire. COMSOL software was used to simulate magnetic flux density and optimize the geometric parameters of magnets. Response surface methodology was used to formulate the output voltage model. Magnetic flux density affects output voltage dramatically. However, the output voltage is not sensitive to the gradient of magnetic flux density. The experimental results indicate that when the Wiegand wire is 14.2 mm from the magnet, the generation power is 0.118–1.15 mW, in a speed range of 240–540 rpm. When the Wiegand wire is 7.0 mm from the magnet, the generation power is 0.741–1.06 mW, in a speed range of 480–660 rpm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Scale Energy Harvesting Devices)
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