The purpose of this study is to develop a novel concept of smart structural systems that can recognize their own structural integrity by an embodied high density sensor network. Over the past two decades, sensor networks for automatic inspection application have been intensively investigated, and it has now become reasonable to deploy over 1000 sensor nodes in a single structural system. It would be certain, however, that the current approaches that require rich electronics and wireless communication at each sensor node will reach its limit due to huge amount of data overwhelming the network capacity and centralized computing resources. In this study, we propose a new approach to make a breakthrough in both communication and computation for such high density sensor networks of the next generation. In our approach, a number of sensor nodes with simple functions are embedded in the structure, each of which reacts to the elastic waves propagating through the structure by applying a force to the structure after a simple nonlinear transformation. This allows the whole nodes to be mutually coupled through the medium of elastic waves, forming a neural network that incorporates the dynamic characteristics of the structure as the coupling weights. In this paper, we present a possible realization of our concept with basic formulations, and present numerical simulations to examine how the proposed network behaves under a single frequency input. It is presented that the network exhibits a bifurcation in its asymptotic behavior from modulated response to steady-state depending on the structural conditions.
The purpose of this study is to discuss the possibility of the concept of physical reservoir computing (PRC) in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM). PRC is a physical realization of a class of recurrent neural networks called reservoir computing (RC). This consists of an input layer, mutually connected network of neurons with strong nonlinearity with fixed coupling weights (referred to as reservoir), and an output layer with learnable weights. The key idea of PRC is to replace the reservoir part in RC by a specific physical entity, which has opened new possibilities of smart structures by providing a way to embed some sort of intelligence in structures. In this study, we propose to apply this framework to SHM by regarding the target structure itself as the physical reservoir. Unlike the conventional problem setting in PRC, our purpose is to detect the change occurred in the physical reservoir due to structural failure. In this paper, we propose one possible methodology to achieve this, in which the output layer is trained to learn some nonlinear function so that the increase of the error may indicate the change of the reservoir due to failure. A simple toy problem using a network of interconnected nonlinear oscillators are presented to examine the validity of the proposed method.
In our project, a novel gear health monitoring system called a “smart gear sensor system” has been being developed. This system has a smart gear sensor and a monitoring antenna. The smart gear sensor has been created by using a laser sintering technique that allows a conductive ink to be sintered directly on the gear surface to form a sensor chain. This technique is also used to form an antenna pattern of the monitoring antenna. Experimentally, when the smart gear with the integrated sensor chain is brought parallelly close to the monitoring antenna while this antenna is connected to a network analyzer, a magnetic coupling happens. This wireless magnetic coupling is presented via the return loss signal gained by the network analyzer. Moreover, the conductivity of the sensor chain on the smart gear has been proven to affect the magnetically coupled return loss signal. Specifically, the shape of the return loss signal will be changed correspondingly. Since the sensor chain is sintered directly on the surface of the gear, the physical characteristics of the gear such as healthy or cracked will result in the quality of the sensor conductivity. Therefore, the smart gear's healthy or cracked characteristics can be observed via the return loss signal chart obtained by the network analyzer. In other words, the return loss signal can be considered essential data for the gear health monitoring process. Nevertheless, because the temperature will have a certain influence on the physical state of not only the gear but also the sintered sensor, the evaluation of the temperature to the magnetic coupling and its return loss signal becomes unavoidable. As a result, this study focuses majorly on the consideration of the influence of the temperature so that the accuracy of the proposed gear health monitoring method can be improved. The final experimental result and analysis demonstrate that the temperature also significantly impacts the return loss of the smart gear system.
Recently, data-driven machine health monitoring has become more popular due to the wide-spread deployment of lowcost sensors and deep learning algorithms’ achievements. The detection of failures of machines can be determined based on failure classification results using deep learning architectures. On this tendency, we constructed a plastic gear failure detection structure using a convolutional neural network. In this study, raw vibration data was converted to frequencydomain data. Amplitudes of frequencies in the monitored frequency band were transferred into images, which then were labeled as crack or non-crack by a high-speed camera. Although deep learning architectures have great potential to automatically learn from complex features of input data, the high-amplitude frequencies reflecting the main vibration causes such as gear meshing frequency and its harmonics or shaft frequency affect the accuracy of learning. Besides, the low-amplitude frequencies in a low-frequency band, which are sensitive to gear failures, show efficiency in early failure signs of the plastic gear. Thus, this paper proposed an image visualization and labeling method by focusing on lowamplitude frequency features in the low-frequency band and lessening high-amplitude frequency features. The results show that the proposed system learning from new visualized images can detect plastic gear’s early failure situation before the initial crack happened.
This research evaluates the influence of phase fluctuation of a high-speed smart gear on the return loss of monitoring antenna in our developing “smart gear sensor system”. This smart health monitoring system of gear comprising of an antenna connected to a network analyer and another similar antenna integrating crack detection sensors directly printed on a gear. The principle of this system is based on magnetic coupling phenomenon between samples of antenna and crack detection sensors with antenna printed on polyacetal (POM) plates so that the characteristics of the gear side elements can be obtained wirelessly. In this paper, the effect of the relative phase fluctuation when the smart gear is operating at high speed on this coupling signal perhaps is considered. Practically, a special experimental rig consists of a motor with a speed control button, an antenna on a polyacetal (POM) plate with a radio frequency connector, and a smart gear with integrated sensors antenna was created. Thanks to this test rig, the smart gear is able to rotate with variant rotational velocities in range of 500 rpm to 5000 rpm while keeping pairing concentrically with the fixed monitoring antenna at a constant distance. Then, return losses received from this antenna via the network analyzer then are recorded at each specific speed. In comparison with the return losses gained in case of similar experimental setting but in stationary state, the shape form of the high-speed phase fluctuation return loss is indicated.
The aim of this study is to develop a simple sensor node with a sensor and actuator system which interacts with its host structure in an autonomous and self-sufficient manner. Such a sensor and actuator system embedded in a structure may perform like a biological system surrounded by an environment that eventually earns a recognition of its internal and external state through the embodied interaction with the host as well as other nodes in the neighborhood. To this end, this paper presents a structurally embedded piezoelectric ultrasonic active sensor that intermittently oscillates using energy harvested by itself from the operational vibration of the host structure. The presented sensor node consists of three parts: a piezoelectric element (PE) that performs as an energy harvester, sensor, and actuator; an oscillation circuit which induces an ultrasonic burst of the PE at one of the natural frequencies of the host structure, and a charge controller that switches the PE between an energy storage and the oscillation circuit. Since the oscillation frequency of the ultrasonic burst and the burstto-burst period respectively reflect the structural dynamics in high-frequencies and the magnitude of the low-frequency vibration at the sensor location, both of which can be used to understand the structural integrity and operating conditions. In this paper, an energy harvesting performance measure for the PEs directly attached on the structural surface is first presented. A design of the oscillation circuit with negative resistance is then presented, and experimental verifications are made to show the basic validation and future possibility of the proposed concept.
Nowadays, deep learning (DL) has become a rapidly growing and provides useful tools for processing and analyzing big machinery data. Many research projects achieved success in failure classification from machinery data using convolutional neural networks (CNNs), one of the most extensive study aspects of DL. On this trend, we constructed a crack detection system of POM (Polyoxymethylene) gears using a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN). In our work, vibration data collected from plastic gears was visualized and labelled as crack data or non-crack images. A DCNN based on pre-trained VGG16, which firstly pre-learned from ImageNet’s data and then re-learned from the labelled images, is utilized to classify crack or non-crack situations of plastic gears. In this case of study, the image quality distortions of the dataset such as blur, noise or contrast are stable and do not affect the performance of the DCNN. However, the image size, which keep a vital role to reach high performance of the detection system, has been unknown. Hence, this paper reveals an optimized size of images created from vibration data for high-accuracy of learning.
This paper presents a design study of a miniaturized nonlinear vibration energy harvester based on a mechanically and magnetically-sprung resonator for a low-frequency application. The resonator to be investigated consists of a moving magnet composite as a mass, which is sprung by two planar springs and two fixed ring magnets. The planar springs with spiral-like shape are respectively connected to the both ends of the magnet composite so that they can provide a linear stiffness in a compact size. Mechanical stoppers installed to constrain the deformation of the spring give the resonator hardening characteristics which effectively widen the resonance band. The magnet composite is comprised of two repelling cylindrical magnets and a steel disk between them, all encapsulated in a thin stainless steel cylinder whose outer diameter is smaller than the diameter of the ring magnets. The pole arrangement of the ring magnets is repelling so that they can suspend the magnet composite between them. This configuration of the magnets yields a local minimum in the magnetic attractive force between the magnet composite and the single ring magnet. Consequently, it can show either monostable or bistable property depending on the distance between two ring magnets. If the distance is adjusted so that the bistability emerges, it can cancel the linear stiffness of the planar springs, so that the overall bandwidth can be extended lower which is suitable for low frequency application. In this paper, the hardening effect of the proposed mechanical stopper arrangement is examined by an initial prototype of a miniaturized electromagnetic harvester designed and fabricated without ring magnets. The performance of the harvester in terms of the frequency responses demonstrates a pronounced band widening effect due to the proposed stopper arrangement.
KEYWORDS: Energy harvesting, Resistance, Circuit switching, Switches, Solar energy, Resonators, Switching, Sensors, Field effect transistors, Control systems, Nonlinear control
This paper presents an effort to achieve a nonlinear wideband vibration energy harvester (VEH) with a self-powered stabilization control which is introduced to resolve the well-known problem of the coexisting solutions in the resonance frequency band. The most significant issue on the wideband VEH using a nonlinear oscillator is the difficulty of coexisting solutions, because of which the emergence of the response in the high-energy branch is not guaranteed since it depends on the initial conditions to which steady-state solutions the state is attracted. Thus, a response stabilization control has been proposed by introducing a negative impedance converter (NIC) which returns the harvested energy to the resonator to destabilize the undesirable lower-energy solutions and make the highest-energy solution globally stable. However, the power necessary to operate the control was supplied by an external power source in the previous studies, so that the power consumption by the control circuit is still a critical problem. In this study, the suppression of the power consumption to drive the operational amplifier in the NIC, the power consumed in the switching circuit, and the power to operate the microprocessor has been discussed. A self-powered control circuit has been designed and developed, and it has been demonstrated that it can perform the response stabilization control in a single manner. Successive operation is still a critical problem which requires further understanding of the mutual constraints among design parameters and operation conditions.
This paper presents the modeling and analysis of a nonlinear wideband vibration energy harvester (VEH) with an asymmetric restoring force. It is commonly recognized that a VEH based on a nonlinear resonator having an odd-symmetric hardening (or softening) restoring force can show wideband frequency characteristics due to its bent resonance peak while keeping its maximum power performance. In practice, however, it often happens that the restoring force has some asymmetry, for instance, due to a bias force (e.g. gravity), or irregular asymmetry in the geometry. In this paper, a hardening resonator with a constant bias force is particularly focused on, and its approximate steady-state solution is studied based on a newly proposed averaging method combined with harmonic balancing. The validity of the approximate solutions are verified by comparing them with numerical solutions. As a result of the approximate and numerical analyses, it is shown that the frequency response displays a resonance peak climbing along an S-shaped backbone curve which is because of the softening effect due to the quadratic nonlinearity stemming from the asymmetry, followed by the hardening nature of the restoring force. Consequently, the frequency response yields the coexistence of multiple stable steady-state solutions on both sides of the resonance peak, and the highest-energy orbit exhibits a well-defined wideband behavior.
This paper shows crack detection systems based on deep neural networks, which analyze meshing vibration of plastic gears. A gear operating test rig has an acceleration sensor attached on a bearing housing and a high-speed camera. The meshing vibration of plastic gears during operation was measured and teeth images that enable us to decide whether cracks exists were captured. After transferring the meshing vibration data in the time domain to the frequency domain by FFT, the amplitude and phase information of the meshing vibration was converted to image data. According to the images from the high-speed camera, the imaged vibration data were separated to two classes, with or without crack, as the training data for deep neural networks. Furthermore, two convolutional neural networks, 4 layers and 16 layers were constructed for classification of crack existence or non-existence, and the systems were learned from the labeled data set. In the training, the random weighting functions of the convolution were prepared, and the number of images were 350 and the number of epoch was 125. The learning of the 4 layers convolutional neural network was finished appropriately, however, the learning of the 16 layers convolutional neural network did not progress at all. Then, the transfer learning method was used for the 16 layers convolutional neural network. The transfer learning of the 16 layers convolutional neural network was finished appropriately, and the accuracy at 125 learning steps reached to 97.2%.
Health monitoring of rotating machine elements, such as gears, is challenging because of rotation at high speed in gearboxes, geometric complexity, or space limitation for measurements. The long-term objective of the present research is to develop smart sensor systems for detecting gear failure signs. As the very first step, we proposed a new method to manufacture electrical circuits, such as sensors or antennas, on gears. We had begun to develop a 4-axis laser printing system and showed the laser sintering conditions of the conductive ink splayed on steel plates insulated by polyimide layers. In this paper, a crack detection sensor was designed and printed. The printed sensor can monitor the condition of a plastic gear whose module and number of teeth are 1.0 mm and 48. In addition, an antenna designed for the same size gear was printed on a plastic plate, and the frequency property of the antenna was investigated. As a result, the printed antenna had the 1st natural frequency at 0.3GHz. Finally, monitoring experiments was carried out to check the condition of a smart system consisting of the sensor and antenna from the other antenna having the same dimension. As a result of the experiment, the monitoring of the return loss of the external antenna shows the sensor is healthy or not. The sensor and antenna system will allow for the development of better equipment and detection techniques for health monitoring of gears.
Failures detection of rotating machine elements, such as gears, is an important issue. The purpose of this study was to try to solve this issue by printing conductive ink on gears to manufacture condition-monitoring sensors. In this work, three types of crack detection sensor were designed and the sprayed conductive ink was directly sintered on polyimide (PI) - coated polyamide (PA) 66 gears by laser. The result showed that it was possible to produce narrow circuit lines of the conductive ink including Ag by laser sintering technique and the complex shape sensors on the lateral side of the PA66 gears, module 1.0 mm and tooth number 48. A preliminary operation test was carried out for investigation of the function of the sensors. As a result of the test, the sensors printed in this work should be effective for detecting cracks at tooth root of the gears and will allow for the development of better equipment and detection techniques for health monitoring of gears.
This paper presents a novel design of a magnetically-sprung mechanical resonator for electromagnetic vibration energy harvesting. The proposed resonator consists of a plastic cylinder, a moving magnet encapsulated in the cylinder, and two fixed ring magnets fitted on the cylinder suspending the moving magnet between them. The magnetic poles of the ring magnets are arranged so that the face opposed to the moving magnet has the opposite polarity. Thanks to this arrangement, the ring magnet attracts the moving magnet when it is far, but repels it when it comes close. This means that a single ring magnet can stably hold the moving magnet at its equilibrium, and the magnetic force between them is highly nonlinear. As a result, the overall restoring force-displacement relationship shows variety of nonlinear characteristics, from high-stiffness monostability to low-stiffness essential nonlinearity and even bistability, depending on the distance between the ring magnets. Simplified and detailed mathematical models of the proposed magnetic spring are presented to understand the dependence of the force-displacement characteristics on the design parameters. The numerical model of a prototype harvester is investigated to demonstrate the tunability of the resonance frequency by adjusting the axial position of the ring magnets.
KEYWORDS: Oscillators, Energy efficiency, Energy harvesting, Switches, Resistance, Control systems, Switching, Circuit switching, Piezoelectric effects
This paper investigates the efficiency and the effectiveness of the stabilization control which makes the highest-energy steady-state solution of a nonlinear wideband piezoelectric vibration energy harvester globally stable. For the conventional linear vibration energy harvester, there is a trade-off between the bandwidth of the resonance peak and the performance of the power generation in the resonance frequency band. A nonlinear harvester can expand the resonance frequency band to generate larger electric power in a wider frequency range. However, since the nonlinear oscillator can have multiple stable steady-state solutions in the resonance band, it is difficult for the nonlinear vibration energy harvester to maintain the response in the highest-energy solution under the presence of disturbances. A self-excitation circuit has been proposed to make it possible to stabilize the highest-energy solution globally for a nonlinear piezoelectric vibration energy harvester. The self-excitation circuit consists of a switch that connects/disconnects the load circuit and a positive velocity feedback circuit. This circuit can destabilize other unexpected lower-energy solutions and entrain the oscillator only in the highest-energy solution by providing electric energy to the piezoelectric elements. In this study, numerical analyses and experiments are conducted to show that the proposed self-excitation control can provide the global stability to the high-energy solution and maintain the performance of the power generation in the widened resonance frequency band. Furthermore, the energy consumption by the self-excitation circuit is evaluated by numerical analyses in order to find more efficient control law to realize the self-powered control circuit.
This paper proposes an aerial robot that can land on and cling to a steel structure using electric permanent magnets to be- have as a vibration sensor probe for use in vibration-based structural health monitoring. In the last decade, structural health monitoring techniques have been studied intensively to tackle with serious social issues that most of the infrastructures in advanced countries are being deteriorated. In the typical concept of the structural health monitoring, vibration sensors like accelerometers are installed in the structure to continuously collect the dynamical response of the operating structure to find a symptom of the structural damage. It is unreasonable, however, to permanently deploy the sensors to numerous infrastructures because most of the infrastructures except for those of primary importance do not need continuous measurement and evaluation. In this study, the aerial robot plays a role of a mobile detachable sensor unit. The design guidelines of the aerial robot that performs the vibration measurement from the analysis model of the robot is shown. Experiments to evaluate the frequency response function of the acceleration measured by the robot with respect to the acceleration at the point where the robot adheres are carried out. And the experimental results show that the prototype robot can measure the acceleration of the host structure accurately up to 150 Hz.
Health monitoring methods for machines have been the subject of considerable efforts to maintain it at an appropriate timing. Failures of rotating machine elements can cause severe accidents, thus, to detect such failures is an important issue. However, health monitoring of rotating machine elements, such as gears, is challenging because of rotation at high speed in gearboxes, geometric complexity, space limitation for measurements, or another operation conditions. The long-term objective of the present research is to develop smart sensor systems for detecting gear failure signs. As the very first step, this paper proposes a new method to manufacture electrical circuits, such as sensors or antennas, on gears. We print these circuits directly on the gear surface using a laser sintering technique of conductive ink. For this purpose, we have begun to develop a 4-axis laser printing system. This paper shows the laser sintering conditions of the conductive ink splayed on steel plates insulated by polyimide layers. The conductivity of the printed lines was evaluated through observation with a miniature scanning electron microscope. Finally, according to the obtained laser sintering conditions, a meander line antenna was printed as a part of smart sensor systems.
This article presents 3-degree-of-freedom theoretical modeling and analysis of a low-frequency vibration energy harvester based on diamagnetic levitation. In recent years, although much attention has been placed on vibration energy harvesting technologies, few harvesters still can operate efficiently at extremely low frequencies in spite of large potential demand in the field of structural health monitoring and wearable applications. As one of the earliest works, Liu, Yuan and Palagummi proposed vertical and horizontal diamagnetic levitation systems as vibration energy harvesters with low resonant frequencies. This study aims to pursue further improvement along this direction, in terms of expanding maximum amplitude and enhancing the flexibility of the operation direction for broader application fields by introducing a new topology of the levitation system.
This paper presents a resonance-type vibration energy harvester using a nonlinear oscillator with self-excitation circuit. The bandwidth of the resonance peak and the performance of the power generation at the resonance frequency are trade- offs for the conventional linear vibration energy harvester. A nonlinear oscillator can expand the resonance frequency band to generate larger electric power in a wider frequency range. However, it is difficult for the harmonically excited nonlinear vibration energy harvester to maintain the highest-energy response under the presence of disturbances since the nonlinear oscillator can have multiple stable steady-state solutions in the resonance band. In order to provide the global stability to the highest-energy solution, we introduce a self-excitation circuit which can destabilize other unexpected lower-energy solutions and entrain the oscillator only in the highest-energy solution. Numerical and experimental studies show that the proposed self-excitation control can provide the global stability to the highest-solution and maintain the high performance of the power generation in the widened resonance frequency band.
The purpose of this paper is to develop load assisting clothes for caregivers. Low back pain is one of the most major reasons for caregivers to leave their jobs. In this study, load assisting clothes which reduce the risks of low back pain of caregivers are designed and manufactured, targeting at the use in small care-houses and family caregiving. The load assisting clothes should have two functions. One is to reduce the compressive load acting on the lumbar spine as well as the tensile load on the lumbar muscles by providing an appropriate assisting force. The other is not to interfere with wearers’ motion. The proposed approach in this study is to put elastic compressive members and tensioner belts integrated in the garment to provide the assisting forces without hindering natural movement and comfortable feeling. We study human musculoskeletal systems in the lumbar part, and consider to construct a parallel reinforcement of it on the body surface by embedding passive support structures. The arrangement of those elements is determined based on the study of the principal strain directions and the non-extension directions of the body surface to manage the appropriate assisting force without spoiling the mobility. The effectiveness of the proposed support principle is verified through experimental studies.
The long-term objective of our research is to develop sensor systems for detection of gear failure signs. As a very first step, this paper proposes a new method to create sensors directly printed on gears by a printer and conductive ink, and shows the printing system configuration and the procedure of sensor development. The developing printer system is a laser sintering system consisting of a laser and CNC machinery. The laser is able to synthesize micro conductive patterns, and introduced to the CNC machinery as a tool. In order to synthesize sensors on gears, we first design the micro-circuit pattern on a gear through the use of 3D-CAD, and create a program (G-code) for the CNC machinery by CAM. This paper shows initial experiments with the laser sintering process in order to obtain the optimal parameters for the laser setting. This new method proposed here may provide a new manufacturing process for mechanical parts, which have an additional functionality to detect failure, and possible improvements include creating more economical and sustainable systems.
This study aims to develop a design principle of a nonlinear dynamic vibration absorber focusing on its robustness against the alteration of the natural frequency of the primary system. To this end, a 2-DOF coupled system consisting of the primary and absorber systems is analytically solved to evaluate the maximally possible level of the displacement response of the primary system by means of averaging method. In this approach, the equation of motion of the vibration absorber is first solved in the steady-state by the averaging method for a given amplitude of the primary system assuming that the whole responses of the coupled system have the same frequency as the excitation force. Then, the equivalent dynamic stiffness of the dynamic absorber is derived which represents how the absorber acts on the primary system in reaction of the displacement of the primary system. Because the maximally possible displacement amplitude of the primary system is enveloped by the reciprocal of the imaginary part of the equivalent dynamic stiffness, the benefit of introducing a softening effect into the design of the dynamic absorber is theoretically suggested, and validated through numerical simulations.
This paper presents an experimental verification of a wideband nonlinear vibration energy harvester which has a globally stabilized high-energy resonating response. For the conventional linear vibration energy harvester, the maximum performance of the power generation and its bandwidth are in a relation of trade-off. The resonance frequency band can be expanded by introducing a Duffing-type nonlinear resonator in order to enable the harvester to generate larger electric power in a wider frequency range. However, since such nonlinear resonators often have multiple stable steady-state solutions in the resonance band, it is difficult for the nonlinear harvester to maintain the high performance of the power generation constantly. The principle of self-excitation and entrainment has been utilized to provide the global stability to the highest-energy solution by destabilizing other unexpected lower-energy solutions by introducing a switching circuit of the load resistance between positive and the negative values depending on the response amplitude of the oscillator. In this study, an experimental verification of this concept are carried out. An experimental prototype harvester is designed and fabricated and the performance of the proposed harvester is experimentally verified. It has been shown that the numerical and experimental results agreed very well, and the highest-energy solutions above the threshold value were successfully stabilized globally.
Wireless sensor networks need energy harvesting from vibrational environment for their power supply. The conventional
resonance type vibration energy harvesters, however, are not always effective for low frequency application. The purpose
of this paper is to propose a high efficiency energy harvester for low frequency application by utilizing plucking and SSHI
techniques, and to investigate the effects of applying those techniques in terms of the energy harvesting efficiency. First,
we derived an approximate formulation of energy harvesting efficiency of the plucking device by theoretical analysis.
Next, it was confirmed that the improved efficiency agreed with numerical and experimental results. Also, a parallel SSHI,
a switching circuit technique to improve the performance of the harvester was introduced and examined by numerical
simulations and experiments. Contrary to the simulated results in which the efficiency was improved from 13.1% to 22.6%
by introducing the SSHI circuit, the efficiency obtained in the experiment was only 7.43%. This would due to the internal
resistance of the inductors and photo MOS relays on the switching circuit and the simulation including this factor revealed
large negative influence of it. This result suggested that the reduction of the switching resistance was significantly important
to the implementation of SSHI.
In this paper, a wide-band vibration energy harvester using a nonlinear hardening oscillator with self-excitation circuit is
presented. A vibration energy harvester is one of the energy-harvesting devices that collects unused energy from vibrating
environment. For the conventional linear vibration energy harvester, the resonance frequency is matched to the source
frequency, and the mechanical Q factor is designed as large as possible to maximize the oscillator's amplitude. The large Q
factor, however, bounds the resonance in a narrow frequency band, and the performance of the vibration energy harvester
can become extremely worth when the frequency of the vibration source fluctuates. As is well known, the resonance
frequency band can be expanded by introducing a hardening (or softening) nonlinear oscillator. However, it is difficult
for the nonlinear vibration energy harvester to maintain the regenerated power constant because such nonlinear oscillator
can have multiple stable steady-state solutions in the resonance band. In this paper, a control law that switches the load
resistance between positive and negative values according to the instantaneous displacement and the velocity is proposed
to give the oscillator a self-excitation capability, which ensures the oscillator entrained by the excitation only in the largest
amplitude solution. Moreover, an adaptive adjustment of the control law is proposed to quicken the entrainment process.
Numerical analysis shows that the nonlinear vibration energy harvester with resistance switching can maintain the large
amplitude response even when the excitation frequency abruptly changes.
This study concerns a vibration energy harvester of resonance-type with a nonlinear oscillator which can convert the kinetic
energy of the vibration source to electric energy effectively in a wide frequency range. The conventional linear harvesters
are designed so as to generate larger power by matching the natural frequency of the oscillator to the frequency of the source
vibration. The problem is, however, that if the input frequency changes even in a slight amount, the performance of the
harvester can become extremely worse because the effective bandwidth of the resonance is quite narrow. In this study, the
resonance frequency band of the oscillator is expanded by using a nonlinear oscillator with a nonlinear spring to allow the
harvester to generate larger electric power in wider frequency range. However, the nonlinear oscillator can have multiple
stable steady-state responses in the resonance band, and it depends on the initial conditions which solution emerges. In
this paper, the mechanism of self-excitation is utilized to unstabilize the solutions except for the largest amplitude solution.
A charging circuit with a variable resistance which is controlled from negative to positive as a function of the response
amplitude is introduced in order to enable the oscillator entrained by the excitation only in the large amplitude solution.
Theoretical and numerical analyses are conducted to show that the nonlinear energy harvester with resistance control can
respond in large amplitude in wide frequency range, and a significant improvement is achieved in the regenerated power
compared with the one without control.
In this paper, a nondestructive, in-service structural integrity monitoring methodology that can detect and characterize local
structural damages of contact-type, i.e. damages and failures which come along with generation, growth and/or changes of
contacting surfaces, such as cracks, debonding, preload-loss in bolted joints, etc., is presented. The presented monitoring
system consists of piezoelectric elements bonded on the structural surface, a high-frequency harmonic voltage source,
and a current detector. When the structure is subjected to a vibrational load such as operational load at low-frequencies,
the scattering conditions for the high-frequency elastic waves in the vicinity of the contact-type damages will change in
synchronization with the structural vibration because of the fluctuation of the contact conditions. This nonlinear effects
of vibro-acoustic interaction between the low-frequency vibration and the high-frequency wave field causes the change
in the driving-point impedance of the structure at the high frequency range, which leads to the significant modulation of
the coupled electro-mechanical impedance (or admittance) of the piezoelectric elements. Therefore, if the piezoelectric
elements are driven by a fixed amplitude high-frequency harmonic voltage source, the nonlinear fluctuation of the coupled
admittance can be observed as the amplitude and phase modulation of the current flowing through the piezoelectric element.
A modeling and analytical study of the nonlinear piezoelectric impedance modulation is presented for a beam structure
including a crack, utilizing a linear time-varying system theory. A damage evaluation measure is presented based on the dimensionless modal stiffness fluctuation estimated from the instantaneous admittance reconstructed from the demodulated current responses. Furthermore, fundamental strategies and future directions for damage localization based on the nonlinear piezoelectric impedance modulation are briefly discussed.
In this paper, a structural health monitoring (SHM) methodology that can detect and characterize local structural damages
in early stage is developed, by merging the concepts of two existing SHM principles, a piezoelectric impedance-based
methodology and a nonlinear wave modulation spectroscopy. The presented SHM system mainly consists of a piezoelectric
element bonded on the structural surface, a high-frequency harmonic voltage source, and a current detector. When the
structure is subjected to a dynamic load at low-frequencies, it vibrates, and the scattering conditions for the high-frequency
elastic waves in the vicinity of the inherent damages will change in synchronization with the structural vibration. This
nonlinear effects of vibro-acoustic interaction between the low-frequency vibration and the high-frequency wave field
causes the change in the driving-point impedance at the high frequency range, which can significantly modulate the coupled
electro-mechanical impedance (or admittance) of the piezoelectric element. Therefore, if the piezoelectric element is driven
by a fixed amplitude high-frequency harmonic voltage source, the nonlinear modulation of the coupled admittance can be
observed as the amplitude and phase modulation of the current flowing through the piezoelectric element. A simplified
modeling study of the above-mentioned nonlinear piezoelectric impedance modulation successfully leads to a damage
evaluation index that assesses the intensity of the modulation of the modal stiffness. Experiments using a cracked beam
are conducted to see how the impedance modulation can be observed and to examine the performance of the proposed
method.
This paper proposes a new method for the frequency response analysis of a vibration system with parametric excitation
of damping coefficient. A base-excited single-degree-of-freedom model with a variable damper is considered. The
variable damping coefficient can be changed to that in the case of a sine wave, i.e., a parametric excitation whose
frequency can be arbitrarily selected. One of the external forces acting on the mass through the damper from the base is
equivalent to the product of the damping coefficient and the input velocity. The product of the input sine wave and the
frequency-controlled sine wave for variable damping, yields a new vibration that has a frequency different from the input
frequency. Therefore, the oscillation of the damping coefficient at a suitable frequency can generate a new vibrational
component that has the same frequency as that of the eigen-oscillation of the vibration system. As a result, the vibration
amplitude increases because of resonance. In this study, first, we carry out theoretical analysis and obtain the frequency
response of the proposed system. Subsequently, we confirm the effectiveness of the proposed analysis method by
comparing the analysis result with previous simulation results.
KEYWORDS: Numerical analysis, Motion models, Vibration simulation, Numerical simulations, Simulink, Systems engineering, Smart structures, System integration, Systems modeling, Vibration control
This paper proposes a new method to generate a quasi-resonance by variable damping in a base-excited vibration system.
In general, the applications of variable damping are to dissipate energy of the vibration system and to reduce the
amplitude as soon as possible. Our purpose of the application is not decrease but increase of the amplitude of the
vibration system. In this paper, a simple single-degree-of-freedom base excited model with a variable damper is
considered. The coefficient of the variable damper is changed like a sine wave, i.e. parametric excitation which of the
frequency can be freely chosen. The damping force generated by the variable damper is equivalent to a product at the
variable coefficient and the relative velocity of the system between the base and the mass. By multiplying the input
sinusoidal wave from the base excitation by the frequency controllable sinusoidal wave of the variable damper, new
vibration that has another frequency besides the input frequency arises. Therefore, the controllable oscillation of the
damping coefficient in a suitable frequency can generate new vibration that has the same frequency as the natural
frequency of the vibration system. As a result, the amplitude of the vibration system increases because of a phenomenon
that is similar to common resonance. In this paper, we clarify the facts on the growth of the amplitude by the proposed
method in numerical analysis.
In this paper, the applicability of a nonlinear wave modulation-based crack monitoring methodology has been experimentally investigated. Experiments using a beam specimen with a low-cycle fatigue crack have been conducted for the purpose of preliminary study, in which two PZT patches attached on the beam have been used as the transducer of high frequency probe wave. When the specimen is subjected to a harmonic loading at low frequencies, it vibrates, and the presence of the crack introduces a nonlinear effect to the vibro-acoustic dynamics resulting an interaction between the low frequency structural vibration and the high frequency probe wave. This nonlinearity is observed as the amplitude and phase modulation of the received probe wave synchronous with the structural vibration. To investigate the relationship between the modulations, the structural vibration and the damage extent, the collected signal at the receiver PZT has been separated into low frequency and high frequency components, the former has been used to obtain the information about the structural vibration, while the latter has been demodulated in amplitude and phase. The demodulated waveforms have been examined as a potential indicator of the crack extent, especially focusing on their higher harmonics. Then, a "modulation surface" constructed from the modulated envelopes and the low frequency components has been proposed, which could provide more detailed view of the nonlinear wave modulation effects induced by the crack development. Several candidates for a damage indicator based on the modulation surface have been presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the modulation surface as a sensitive and promising feature relevant to the damage extent.
In this paper, a sensing methodology is developed and experimentally investigated to detect and characterize damages, which are essentially accompanied by changes in the micro/macroscopic condition of surface contact. The proposed technique is developed mainly for early detection of loose bolted joints, but also may be applicable to kissing bonds in adhesive joints and breathing cracks under the operational condition. The presented sensing system consists of PZT patches attached on the structural surface, one of which acts as a transmitter of high frequency harmonic wave. The incident harmonic wave is scattered by the contact surfaces which potentially involve damages, and received by the other patches. When the structure is subjected to the operational or ambient load at low frequencies, it vibrates, and the inherent damages may introduce a nonlinear effect to the vibro-acoustic dynamics that induces an interaction between the low frequency structural vibration and the high frequency transmitted wave. This nonlinearity is observed as the amplitude and phase modulation of the received wave due to the changes in the scattering characteristics synchronous with the structural vibration. By investigating the relationship between the modulations and the structural vibration, the nonlinear characteristics of the damages can be specified. Experiments using a beam with a bolted joint are conducted for illustrative purpose.
Pseudoelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) have great potential of shock absorption because of their large reversible strain and the "force-thresholding" characteristics, especially when used with geometric nonlinearity such as post-buckling deformation. Martensitic SMAs also have favorable shock absorption capacity with actuation capability. In this paper, we attempt to apply both pseudoelastic and martensitic SMAs to the design of the outer skins of mechanical and structural systems to give them significant shock tolerance. The shock isolation capability of pseudoelastic NiTi thin wire is firstly examined by low velocity weight-dropping tests. Then, as the first step toward the development of woven SMA-based shock absorbing skin, both pseudoelastic and martensitic SMA wires are woven to form mesh structures, and their shock absorbing characteristics are investigated. The tests suggest that the energy absorption capacity of the SMA mesh can be adjustable by combining appropriate amount of martensitic wires, even though that of the pseudoelastic SMA by itself is rather poor.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Wavelet transforms, Data processing, Sensor networks, Data acquisition, Computing systems, Local area networks, Wavelets, Prototyping, Microelectromechanical systems
In this paper, we design a sensor network system with a host computer and a sensor terminal, which has local data processing by using off-the-shelf hardware. If all data, which are obtained by many sensors, are transmitted to the host computer and data processing is centralized at the host computer, the task of the host computer becomes large. Therefore, we consider that tasks of the host computer are decreased by making each sensor unit to share data processing locally and transmit results to the host computer.
The sensor terminal consists of an accelerometer, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and the T-Engine (M32104) has capacity of data acquisition, processing and transmission in real time. We use the wavelet transform as an algorithm of data processing. The host computer can receive the result of the wavelet transform by sending the request to the sensor terminal. However, The host computer and the sensor terminal are connected by LAN cables. Next version of the prototype has wireless LAN.
We demonstrate the performance of the sensor network system by applying this system to a structural model and make the sensor terminal execute locally the wavelet transform.
This paper describes a damage identification method for structures mainly subject to bending load, considering the applicability in a decentralized computing environment of wireless sensor networks. A modal flexibility-based damage indices that have simple and intuitive physical interpretation is presented. Since the proposed damage indices are computed using angular mode shapes of the lowest several modes, MEMS gyroscopes are adopted as the sensing device. The damage evaluation algorithm is then modified to a decentralized form, which is to be implemented as the local computation of mode separation at each sensor unit and the global computation of the damage index at the central monitoring station. Experiments using a bolted beam are conducted to show the applicability of the proposed algorithm to the detection of loose bolt failures.
In this paper, we present a damage monitoring method to detect and track the evolution of structural damages based on the measurements acquired by vibratory gyroscopes. We propose a modal flexibility-based damage index that quantifies the local bending flexibility of the beam structures by conducting virtual local loading tests. We use vibratory gyroscopes to measure the angular mode shapes which are necessary to assess the proposed damage index. A time-frequency analysis-based simple scheme is developed to identify the time-varying mode shapes to detect and track the evolution of the damage index. Experimental results show that the proposed monitoring method is capable to indicate the location of the damages as well as the time when they occur.
Pseudoelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) have origin-oriented restoring forces under a tensile-compressive loading/ unloading and their restoring forces have the characteristic that they don't keep increasing as deformation increases and converge to a certain value. Using this characteristic, it is enable to restrain the transmission of force, i.e. acceleration, from the source of vibration. In this paper, we use SMA wires as softening springs and develop a base isolation system using them. The springs don't lose the origin-oriented characteristics and show good performance of softening springs. The base isolation effect of the system using SMA wires is investigated experimentally and we find that it is efficient to restrain acceleration transmission. Equivalent linear analysis is also carried out and the results correspond to experiment results. Furthermore, its durability is examined.
In this paper, we develop a damage identification method for beam structures based on the measurement of propagating waves excited by ambient loads. First, the ambient vibration data acquired by arrayed sensors are separated into the forward-going and the backward-going wave components utilizing the dispersion relation in the frequency domain. Then, the transfer function between an in-coming and out-going pair of the wave components is identified, whose inverse Fourier transform represents the out-going wave packet from a particular region of the structure in response to an impulsive incident. If there exists a crack at a certain location, additional echoes are observed in the identified impulse response, and the arrival time of the echoes would indicate the location of the crack. Experiments show that the proposed method is capable to detect the existence and the position of a crack only using a couple of sensors.
In this paper, we conduct a feasibility study to investigate the future potential of textile composites with shape memory alloys. Two different types of SMA-based textile composites are presented. First, a composite plate with embedded woven SMA layer is fabricated, and the stiffness tuning capability is evaluated by impact vibration tests. The results are not favorable, but may be improved by increasing the volume fraction of SMA, and by controlling the prestrain more accurately during the lamination process. The modeling and analysis methodology for woven SMA-based composites are briefly discussed. Then, the possibility of textile composites with SMA stitching is discussed, that is expected to give the composites multi-functions such as tunable stiffness, shape control and sensing capability, selectively distributed on demand.
In this paper, we conduct finite element analysis of a pseudoelastic SMA wire with curved shape, which is designed as a spring component in the base isolation devices. A simplified constitutive equation is implemented with the finite beam elements based on the updated Lagrangian formulation to deal with the geometric and material nonlinearities of the SMA wires. The simulated deformation shapes and the force-displacement characteristics are compared with the measured results.
The paper studies the influence of a shape memory alloy (SMA) element on the dynamic response of a single-degree-of-freedom- system, representing a structural building under earthquake excitation. Variations of the SMA geometry are studied by numerical simulation, and a value for the SMA radius is determined, which provides optimal system performance. In particular do we focus on the role of hysteresis-induced passive damping, which can potentially be exploited for the development of SMA-based semi-active control schemes.
An undamped SDOF system with a pseudoelastic SMA restoring force is investigated to find the optimal shape of the hysteresis loop of SMA elements which provides the maximum damping performance. The performance of the device is evaluated by the steady-state response at the resonance point in order to focus on the damping effect. Dynamic analysis utilizing the equivalent linearization approach results in two major findings: (a) for a given excitation amplitude, the scale of the hysteresis loop, which is a measure of displacement and restoring force, needs to be adjusted so that the response sweeps the maximum loop but does not exceed it; (b) the ratio of the area confined within the hysteresis loop, to the area of a corresponding envelope of triangular shape, should be as large as possible. Numerical study is carried out to verify the performance of the optimized devices subject to harmonic and random excitation. A simple mechanism that realizes the quasi-optimal hysteresis curve is shown as an example of possible devices.
Recent developments in the new field of auto-adaptive materials offer promising opportunities for developing radically new fastening mechanisms. One of the classes of materials in this category is Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs). SMAs are very attractive for structural application because of their major constitutive behaviors such as pseudoelastic characteristic. Pseudoelastic behavior of NiTi SMAs is a unique hysteretic energy dissipation behavior that combined with a very long fatigue life makes SMAs a viable candidate for developing new fasteners. Pseudoelastic behavior of Shape Memory Alloys, particularly NiTI, can be used for developing passive fastening-mechanisms and tendon-systems. In case of coastal structures, where hurricane destruction inflicted upon residential structures results in million of dollar in financial damages and loss of lives each year, development of more effective fastening-mechanisms and tendon-systems for the connections between the walls and the roofs will aid in damage reduction. A study carried out by the authors has shown that the extent of damping effect of a hybrid tendon-system, made of rigid NiTi sections directly depends on the length-ratio of the rigid NiTi section, tendon diameter and the amount of pre-strain on the tendon. Moreover, because of tendon-system passive design the nature of excitation has a profound effect on its activation and damping capability. In this paper effectiveness of a hybrid NiTi tendon-system for damage mitigation of coastal structures and optimal hybrid tendon length-ratio are studied.
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