Piezoelectric transduction has gained a lot of attention for vibration-to-electric energy conversion in recent years. It can be used to convert energy from vibration environment into electricity for some related applications. However it is found to only gather very low-power energy (only several microwatts) resulting in very limited utilization. Furthermore, it is proved that the relationship of mechanical-electric energy very complex hysteresis, which makes its utilization even limited. Based on the above background, this paper conducts a series of researches on vibration-electric energy of a representative harvester (a cantilever beam from a laminated piezoelectric composite patch) in terms of characteristic experiment and harvesting modeling. In the experiment, it is vibrated by a modal exciter and connected into a circuit with a variable potentiometer. The mechanical and electric response are then all collected and saved by a data acquisition system. Through observing the harvested energy by tuning different frequencies in exciter and resistances load in potentiometer, we summarize some pivotal rules, which can provides an important reference for harvesting as much energy as possible from the aspect of optimized configuration and suitable environment. Based on the experiment, a large number of characteristic data (mechanical-electric loops) received is ready for next study of harvesting modeling. In the paper, an FEM model and a mathematical model are proposed successively to simulate those characteristic data from test. By comparison, we found the mathematical one is superior. It is not only capable of simulating the hysteretic properties of the cantilever harvester but also capable of describing their deteriorative characteristics like asymmetric and offset loops. In general, this paper has completed harvesting system configurations and characteristic modeling. They can combine to develop more potential electric energy from the vibration environment in this kind of PZT harvesters.


Study on Mechanical-Electric Characteristics of a Cantilever\x0bBeam of a Composite PZT Patch

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace Division

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/SMASIS/SMASIS2020/volume/84027

SMASIS2020 - Virtual Conference

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.