Acoustic energy transfer (AET) is considered to be a promising technology without electromagnetic interference and safety issue compared to other wireless power transfer methods, especially for biomedical applications. In this paper, an AET system using piezoelectric transducers is modelled by equivalent circuit representation and finite element method, which in general give consistent results. A parametric study is then conducted to understand the influence of the sizes of barrier and piezoelectric transducers as well as the load resistance on the performance of the AET system. It is found that the area of the barrier has negligible impact on the performance, but the thickness of the barrier does, and the thinner barrier is favorable. In addition, it is found that a transfer efficiency of over 90% can be achieved if the transducers are optimized with thickness of 1.8-2.0 mm and the diameter of 24 to 26 mm. As the load resistance increases from 5 Ω to 400 Ω, the maximum efficiency of about 90% is achieved with a medium load resistance. These findings provide useful guidelines for AET system design.
KEYWORDS: Vibration, Metamaterials, Signal attenuation, Ferroelectric materials, Microcontrollers, Resistance, Process control, Transmittance, Transducers, Signal processing
The bandgap generated in piezoelectric metamaterials with resonant shunt circuits unveils a great potential for vibration control. This paper presents a piezoelectric metamaterial with the capability of broadband vibration attenuation by adaptive bandgap tuning. Unlike the widely used synthetic impedance circuit, a self-tuning resonant shunt circuit by integrating a microcontroller-driven digital potentiometer into the synthetic inductor circuit is developed to achieve the bandgap adjustment of the piezoelectric metamaterial. Specifically, the excitation frequency is detected by the microcontroller, and the synthetic inductance in the resonant shunt circuit is adjusted in real-time based on a given criterion. An experimental study is conducted to demonstrate the dynamic behavior and vibration suppression performance of the developed piezoelectric metamaterial. The results confirm that the self-tuning resonant shunt circuit can rapidly respond to frequency-varying vibration sources and endow the piezoelectric metamaterial with an extremely wide vibration attenuation region.
Galloping-based piezoelectric energy harvesters (GPEH) connected with various interface circuits are usually analyzed by treating their advanced structures and circuits separately, and a general model is missing to gain insights at a system level. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes a unified framework that enables an integrated view of the physics of linear GPEHs in multiple domains at the system level. In addition, it elucidates the similarities and differences among power behaviors of GPEHs connected with various interface circuits. It is based on two major elements: an equivalent circuit representing the entire system, and an equivalent impedance representing the interface circuit. Firstly, the electromechanical system is linearized and modeled in the electrical domain by an equivalent self-excited circuit with a negative resistive element representing the external aerodynamic excitation, and a general load impedance representing the interface circuit. Then, a closed-form, analytical expression of the harvested power is obtained based on the Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law, from which the optimal load, maximum power, power limit, and critical electromechanical coupling (minimum coupling to reach the power limit) are determined. In this unified analysis, the exact type of energy harvesting interface circuit is not assumed. After that, the power characteristics of a GPEH connected with five representative interface circuits are analytically derived and discussed separately, by using the particular equivalent impedance of the interface circuit of interest. It is shown that they are subjected to the same power limit. However, the critical electromechanical coupling depends on the type of circuit.
Topological metamaterial has become a research hotspot recently, owing to the unique features, including wave localization and topological protection. In this paper, we are motivated to introduce the topological metamaterial into vibration energy harvesting. The proposed topological metamaterial vibration energy harvester (topological meta-VEH) consists of two topologically different sub-metamaterials and a piezoelectric transducer mounted at the conjunction of these two sub-metamaterials. First, the governing equations of this electromechanical system are derived. Then, the band structure and dispersion relation of this topological meta-VEH is obtained by applying the Bloch theory. To obtain the transmittance response, the finitely long model of the proposed topological meta-VEH is formulated, the corresponding analytical solutions are obtained as well. From the theoretical analysis, it is found that the topological interface mode takes place at the first Brag band gap and it has the capability of concentrating elastic wave energy at the interface so that the piezoelectric transducer at the conjunction can generate large output power. Analytical results indicate that the topological meta-VEH is a novel and outstanding method to achieve high-efficiency energy harvesting.
The nonlinear beam-slider structure, which consists of a nonlinear cantilever beam and a free movable slider, can always obtain the high-energy orbit to achieve passive self-adaption in a wide bandwidth. The efficiency improvement of this structure has been demonstrated in energy harvesting application. In this work, the nonlinear beam-slider structure is applied as a vibration neutralizer. The behavior of the 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) vibration system is investigated experimentally. The trajectory of the slider, time history response of the nonlinear beam and the linear primary structure are recorded simultaneously. The results show that the nonlinear neutralizer with appropriate parameters has broader bandwidth than the linear one. However, there are multiple solutions corresponding to different vibration states of the nonlinear neutralizer in the suppression frequency range. The vibration of linear primary structure can be suppressed only when the nonlinear neutralizer obtains the certain energy orbit at the given frequency range. The free movable slider can assist the nonlinear beam to obtain the high-energy orbit in multi-solution range (28 Hz-31 Hz). In the frequency range of 28 Hz-31 Hz, the nonlinear neutralizer on the high-energy orbit enhances the vibration suppression performance.
One challenge in modelling a galloping piezoelectric energy harvester (GPEH) is the representation of the highly nonlinear aerodynamic force. The existing work in the literature employed various polynomial functions to fit the aerodynamic coefficient curve for simplicity, though their approximation capabilities are limited. In this paper, we propose to use the deep-learning technique to capture the aerodynamic force behaviour of a bluff body. Replacing the widely adopted third-order polynomial function by a welltrained artificial neural network (ANN) for aerodynamic force representation in modelling a GPEH, the feasibility of the proposed approach is preliminarily validated. To further improve the modelling accuracy, the electromechanical structure of the GPEH is then modelled using the finite element method. The trained ANN is integrated with the established finite element model to predict and update the aerodynamic fore applied on the bluff body in the real-time simulation. The aeroelastic motion and the electrical output of the galloping piezoelectric energy harvester are successfully predicted. Finally, based on a collection of experimental data, a welltrained artificial neural network (ANN) is proved to behave with a much better curve fitting performance than a third-order polynomial function. General procedures for using the deep learning technique to help model a general GPEH with complex geometric shapes are proposed.
In the past decade, nonlinearity has been introduced into piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEH) for power performance enhancement and bandwidth enlargement. While a great emphasis has been placed on the structural design and the effect of electrical part on the nonlinear dynamics of the system, the maximum power and power limit, an important aspect for performance optimization of nonlinear PEHs, are rarely studied, especially their relationship with that of linear PEHs. To this end, this paper is motivated to investigate the maximum power and power limit of a representative type of nonlinear PEHs, i.e., monostable. An equivalent circuit is proposed to analytically study and explain the behaviors of monostable PEHs, and reveals the connection between linear and monostable PEHs. The effect of nonlinearity, e.g., due to the additional magnetic force, is modeled as a nonlinear stiffness element mechanically and a nonlinear capacitive element electrically, based on the harmonic balance method. Facilitated by this equivalent circuit and the impedance matching technique, clear closed-form solutions of power limit and critical electromechanical coupling, i.e., minimum coupling to reach the power limit, of monostable PEHs are obtained. Then the effect of excitation level and magnetic field on the power and electromechanical coupling of the system is investigated. Though this paper uses monostable PEHs as an example, the results and technique can be extended to other similar types of nonlinear PEH systems as well, for example, bistable.
In this paper, a tapered beam piezoelectric energy harvester attached with a tip mass whose centroid does not coincide with the attaching point is investigated. First, the consideration of the geometric dimensions of the tip mass is embodied in the calculation of its rotational inertia and the determination of its centroid. Subsequently, a single-degree-of-freedom representation method is developed on the basis of a derived analytical governing equation. Finally, by shunting to the P-SSHI interface circuit, using an improved equivalent impedance modelling method, the mechanical and electrical domains are bridged to provide a comprehensive analysis of the practical energy harvesting system.
Acoustic metamaterial consisting of an array Helmholtz resonators has been revealed to have the band gap phenomenon which implies a great potential for noise reduction. However, the application of the conventional acoustic metamaterial is often limited by the narrow band gap. In this paper, an acoustic metamaterial containing a series of membrane-coupled Helmholtz resonators is proposed to produce mult iple band gaps in the low-frequency regime for achieving broadband noise reduction. First, a theoretical model is developed to describe the dynamic of the membrane-coupled Helmholtz resonator system. The membrane is assumed to be loaded with a small mass at the centre for tuning its natural frequencies, thus the resonances of the coupled system and the band gaps of the proposed acoustic metamaterial. Subsequently, based on the theory of acoustic wave propagation together with the derived theoretical model for the membrane-coupled Helmholtz resonator system, a theoretical analysis of the proposed acoustic metamaterial is performed. Using the Bloch’s theorem, the dispersion relation of the proposed acoustic metamaterial is derived. Multiple band gaps are observed in the band structure. A corresponding finite element model of the proposed metamaterial is built to confirm the predictions from the theoretical analysis.
This paper proposes a metamaterial beam with local resonators coupled by negative stiffness springs. First, a distributed parameter metamaterial beam model with the proposed configuration of coupled local resonators is developed. Due to the introduction of the negative stiffness springs, the system is prone to be unstable. The stability analysis indicates that the infinitely long metamaterial beam becomes unstable as long as the stiffness of the coupling spring becomes negative. For the finitely long metamaterial beam, the stability could be achieved for given negative coupling springs. A parametric study is then conducted to investigate the effects of the number of cells and the lattice constant on the system stability. The transmittance of the finitely long metamaterial beam is calculated. The result shows that due to the restriction on the tunability of the negative stiffness for the proposed metamaterial beam, a certain trade-off is needed for the appearance of the quasi-static vibration suppression region and the enhancement of the main vibration suppression region.
A piezoelectric metamaterial beam is proposed in this paper for both vibration suppression and energy harvesting. Additional springs are introduced to create internal coupling alternately between local resonators. Each resonator is associated with a piezoelectric element for producing electrical energy. First, the mathematical model of the piezoelectric metamaterial beam is developed. The analytical solutions of the transmittance of the system and the open-circuit voltage responses of the piezoelectric elements are derived. As compared to the conventional counterpart without internal coupling, it is found that the energy harvesting performance is significantly reinforced in the low frequency range and the vibration suppression performance is slightly enhanced due to the appearance of an additional band gap. Subsequently, an equivalent finite element model – model A for verifying analytical solutions is developed. The lumped local resonators in the analytical model are modelled by using cantilevers with tip masses in the finite element model. The tip masses are alternately coupled with one-dimensional two-node spring elements. The finite element analysis results show good agreement with the analytical results for both the transmittance of the system and the open-circuit voltage responses of the piezoelectric elements. Finally, a model B with a more practical realization of the internal coupling is established. The coupling spring is replaced by a beam connection. The finite element analysis results show that the behavior of model B is different from model A and is not equivalent to the proposed analytical model. No significant enhancement in terms of energy harvesting is observed but a remarkably enhanced vibration suppression performance appears in model B. The difference between the two models is then discussed.
Snap-through oscillation has been widely utilized in nonlinear energy harvesting for power improvement and bandwidth enlargement. In this paper, the snap-through phenomenon of a bistable dual-beam vibration energy harvester (DB-VEH) when driven by harmonic and random excitations is investigated. First, the electromechanical model is established and the parameters are determined by experimental tests. Subsequently, the dynamic responses under different levels of excitation are simulated and the corresponding experiments are conducted. Results indicate that the bistable DB-VEH can achieve the inter-well and chaotic oscillations near the first and second resonances, providing two frequency bands of snap-through, which is helpful for enlarging the bandwidth. For the inter-well oscillation, the remarkably increased output of one beam is always in sacrifice of the efficiency of the other beam, resulting in an outperformed beam and an underperformed one. Finally, the performance when the bistable DB-VEH is under a random excitation is investigated in comparison with that of its linear counterpart. Results indicate that, thanks to the snap-through phenomenon, the standard deviation of voltage of a bistable DB-VEH is much higher than that of a linear DB-VEH for a certain range of intensity.
Elastic metamaterials can be used for vibration control where environmental vibrations exist. While, vibration energy
harvesters can be designed to harness the environmental vibrations and convert them into useful electricity. These facts
inspire us to develop a system with simultaneous vibration suppression and energy harvesting ability by combining them
together. A piezoelectric metamaterial beam is presented in this paper to achieve dual functionalities. First, an analytical
model of this system is developed and analyzed. Regarding the location of the metamaterial section on the beam, two
configurations are proposed and studied. In order to achieve good dual functionalities, covering the beam with the
metamaterial section from the free end should be given the priority. A parametric study is then performed to investigate
the effect of the number of piezoelectric oscillators on the performance of the system. The result shows that by adding
more oscillators, the system performance in terms of both vibration suppression and energy harvesting can be enhanced.
Finally, a finite element model is developed with the consideration of implementing a realistic structure. The finite
element results are in good agreement with the analytical results.
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