• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.407-410
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• 2009

A piezoelectric device which converts mechanical vibration energy into electrical energy is able to harvest energy and the usable energy is mW ${\sim}$ W, hence a converter is necessary to acquire the energy efficiently. Various limited conditions should be considered for the design of AC/DC converter for energy harvesting of a piezoelectric device supplying small amount of energy. In addition to simple structure, compact size, light weight and high efficiency, the energy harvesting AC!DC converter should adopt the technique of self operating, in which only the harvested energy from the piezoelectric device is available. This paper proposes new AC/DC resonant boost converter to harvest efficiently electrical energy from mechanical vibration energy, analyzes the operating characteristics of the converter and proves its feasibility for energy harvester with PSPICE simulation and experiment.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.2457-2464
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• 2011

In this paper, a vibration energy harvesting circuit using a piezoelectric device is designed. MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) control function is implemented using the electric power-voltage characteristic of a piezoelectric device to deliver the maximum power to load. The designed MPPT control circuit traces the maximum power point by periodically sampling the open circuit voltage of a full-wave rectifier circuit connected to the piezoelectric device output and delivers the maximum available power to load. The proposed vibration energy harvesting circuit is designed with $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. Simulation results show that the maximum power efficiency of the designed circuit is 91%, and the chip area except pads is $700{\mu}m{\times}730{\mu}m$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.263-263
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• 2007

In the future, self-contained sensors and processing units will need on-board, renewable power supplies to be truly autonomous. One way of supplying such power is through energy harvesting, processes by which ambient forms of energy are converted into electricity. One energy harvesting technique involves converting kinetic energy, in the form of vibrations, into electrical energy through the use of piezoelectric materials. Researchers are currently investigating how piezoelectric materials can be used to harvest power. This study examines the use of auxiliary structures, consisting of a mechanical fixture and a lead zirconate/lead titanate (PZT) piezoelectric element, which can be attached to any boundary conditions vibrating beam of the any boundary conditions. Adjusting various boundary conditions of these structures can maximize the strain induced in the attached PZT element and improve power output.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.10a
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• pp.148-149
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• 2013

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.827-830
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• 2006

With recent advanced in portable electric devices, wireless sensor, MEMS and bio-Mechanics device, the new typed power supply, not conventional battery but self-powered energy source is needed. Particularly, the system that harvests from their environments are interests for use in self powered devices. For very low powered devices, environmental energy may be enough to use power source. In the generality of cases, these energy harvesting systems are used in the piezoelectric materials as mechanisms to convert mechanical vibration energy into electric energy. Through the piezoelectric materials, the ambient vibration energy could be used to prolong the power supply or in the ideal case provide endless energy f9r the devices. Therefore, the piezoelectric power harvesting cantilever beam is developed. Also, the output voltage and power are predicted in this study. We also discuss the developing system of the piezoelectric energy scavenger. An experimental verification of the model is also performed to ensure its accuracy.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.67-90
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• 2017

The interdisciplinary research area of small scale energy harvesting has attracted tremendous interests in the past decades, with a goal of ultimately realizing self-powered electronic systems. Among the various available ambient energy sources which can be converted into electricity, wind energy is a most promising and ubiquitous source in both outdoor and indoor environments. Significant research outcomes have been produced on small scale wind energy harvesting in the literature, mostly based on piezoelectric conversion. Especially, modeling methods of wind energy harvesting techniques plays a greatly important role in accurate performance evaluations as well as efficient parameter optimizations. The purpose of this paper is to present a guideline on the modeling methods of small-scale wind energy harvesters. The mechanisms and characteristics of different types of aeroelastic instabilities are presented first, including the vortex-induced vibration, galloping, flutter, wake galloping and turbulence-induced vibration. Next, the modeling methods are reviewed in detail, which are classified into three categories: the mathematical modeling method, the equivalent circuit modeling method, and the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. This paper aims to provide useful guidance to researchers from various disciplines when they want to develop and model a multi-way coupled wind piezoelectric energy harvester.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 2019

Energy harvesting is an advantageous technology for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that dispenses with the need for periodic replacement of batteries. WSNs are composed of numerous sensors for the collection of data and communication; hence, they are important in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, due to low power generation and energy conversion efficiency, harvesting technologies have so far been utilized in limited applications. In this study, a piezoelectric energy harvester was modeled in a vibration environment. This harvester has an oval-shaped configuration as compared to the conventional cantilever-type piezoelectric energy harvester. An analytical model based on an equivalent circuit was developed to appraise the advantages of the oval-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester in which several structural parameters were optimized for higher output performance in given vibration environments. As a result, an oval-shaped energy harvester with an average output power of 2.58 mW at 0.5 g and 60 Hz vibration conditions was developed. These technical approaches provided an opportunity to appreciate the significance of autonomous sensor networks.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.266-284
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• 2010

Piezoelectric materials have become the most attractive functional materials for sensors and actuators in smart structures because they can directly convert mechanical energy to electrical energy and vise versa. They have excellent electromechanical coupling characteristics and excellent frequency response. In this article, the research activities and achievements on the applications of piezoelectric materials in smart structures in China, including vibration control, noise control, energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, and hysteresis control, are introduced. Special attention is given to the introduction of semi-active vibration suppression based on a synchronized switching technique and piezoelectric fibers with metal cores for health monitoring. Such mechanisms are relatively new and possess great potential for future applications in aerospace engineering.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.544-544
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• 2014

Energy harvesting technology, which scavenges electric power from ambient, otherwise wasted, energy sources, has been explored to develop self-powered wireless sensors and possibly eliminate the battery replacement cost for wireless sensors. Among ambient energy sources, vibration energy can be converted into electric power through a piezoelectric energy harvester. For the last decade, although tremendous advances have been made in design methodology to maximize harvestable electric power under a given vibration condition, the research in reliability assessment to ensure durability has been stagnant due to the complicated nature of the multiple failure modes of a piezoelectric energy harvester, such as the interfacial delamination, fatigue failure, and dynamic fracture. Therefore, this study presents the first-ever system reliability analysis for multiple failure modes of a piezoelectric energy harvester using the Generalized Complementary Intersection Method (GCIM), while accounts for the energy conversion performance. The GCIM enables to decompose the probabilities of high-order joint failure events into probabilities of complementary intersection events. The electromechanically-coupled analytical model is implemented based on the Kirchhoff plate theory to analyze its output performances of a piezoelectric energy harvester. Since a durable as well as efficient design of a piezoelectric energy harvester is significantly important in sustainably utilizing self-powered electronics, we believe that technical development on system reliability analysis will have an immediate and major impact on piezoelectric energy harvesting technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.81-89
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• 2008

This paper is concerned with the development of the piezoelectric energy harvesting(PEH) device for ubiquitous sensor node(USN). The USN needs auxiliary power to lengthen its operational life. In this study, the piezoelectric energy harvesting system consisting of a cantilever with a tip mass and piezoelectric wafer was investigated in detail both theoretically and experimentally. The dynamic model for the addressed system was derived using the assumed mode method. The resulting equations of motion were expressed in matrix form, which had never been developed before. The power output characteristics of the PEH was then calculated and discussed. Various experiments were carried out to investigate the charging characteristics of electrical components. Theoretical and experimental results showed that the PEH was able to charge a battery with ambient vibrations but still needed an effective mechanism which can convert mechanical energy to electrical energy and an optimal electric circuit which dissipates small energy.