• Land and Housing Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2016

Energy harvesting technique is to utilize energy that is always present but wasted. In this study, we have developed the energy harvester of the hybrid method utilizing both vibration and pressure of the vehicle traveling a road or parking lot. In the previous study, we have developed a prototype energy harvester, improved hybrid energy harvester, and developed a final product that offers improved performance in the hybrid module. The results were published in the previous paper. In this study, we installed the finally developed hybrid module in the actual parking lot. And we measured the power generation performance due to pressure and vibration, and the running speed of the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling. And we compared the results with those obtained in laboratory conditions. In a previous study performed in laboratory conditions the maximum power of the energy block was 1.066W when one single time of vibration, and 1.830W when succession with 5 times. On the other hand, in this study, we obtained the average power output of 0.310W when the vehicle is running at an average 5 km/h, 0.670W when at an average 10 km/h, and 1.250W when at an average 20 km/h, and 2.160W when at an average 5 km/h. That is, the higher the running speed of the vehicle has increased power generation performance. However, when compared to laboratory conditions, the power generation performance of the energy block in driving speed by 20km/h was lower than those in laboratory conditions. In addition, when compared to one time of vibration of laboratory conditions, power generation performance was higher when the running speed 20km/h or more and when five consecutive times in laboratory conditions, it was higher when the running speed 30km/h or more. It could be caused by a difference of load conditions between the laboratory and the actual vehicle. Thus, applying the energy block on the road would be more effective than that on the parking lot.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.383-391
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• 2023

Energy harvesting in trams may become a prevalent source of passive energy generation due to the high density of vibrational energy, and this may help power structural health monitoring systems for the trams. This paper presents a broadband vibrational energy harvesting device design that utilizes a varied frequency from a tram vehicle using a 2 DOF vibrational system combined with electromagnetic energy conversion. This paper will demonstrate stepwise optimization processes to determine mechanical parameters for frequency tuning to adjust to the trams' operational conditions, and electromagnetic parameters for the whole system design to maximize power output. The initial optimization will determine 5 important design parameters in a 2 DOF vibrational system, namely the masses (m₁, m₂ (and spring constants (k₁, k₂, k₃). The second step will use these parameters as initial guesses for the second optimization which will maintain the ratios of these parameters and present electrical parameters to maximize the power output from this system. The obtained values indicated a successful demonstration of design optimization as the average power generated increased from 1.475 mW to 17.44 mW (around 12 times).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.87-97
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• 2020

In general, tires require various sensors and power supply devices, such as batteries, to obtain information such as pressure, temperature, acceleration, and the friction coefficient between the tire and the road in real time. However, these sensors have a size limitation because they are mounted on a tire, and their batteries have limited usability due to short replacement cycles, leading to additional replacement costs. Therefore, vibration energy harvesting technology, which converts the dynamic strain energy generated from the tire into electrical energy and then stores the energy in a power supply, is advantageous. In this study, the output voltage and power generated from piezoelectric elements are predicted through finite element analysis under static state and transient state conditions, taking into account the dynamic characteristics of tires. First, the tire and piezoelectric elements are created as a finite element model and then the natural frequency and mode shapes are identified through modal analysis. Next, in the static state, with the piezoelectric element attached to the inside of the tire, the voltage distribution at the contact surface between the tire and the road is examined. Lastly, in the transient state, with the tire rotating at the speeds of 30 km/h and 50 km/h, the output voltage and power characteristics of the piezoelectric elements attached to four locations inside the tire are evaluated.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 2017

Ferrofluids are a special category of smart nanomaterials which shows normal liquid behavior coupled with superparamagnetic properties. One of the earliest and most prospective applications of ferrofluids is in damping, which has prominent advantages compared with conventional damping devices: simplicity, flexibility and reliability. This paper presents the basic principles that play a major role in the design of ferrofluid damping devices. The characteristics of typical ferrofluid damping devices including dampers, vibration isolators, and dynamic vibration absorbers are compared and summarized, and then recent progress of vibration energy harvesters based on ferrofluid is briefly described. Additionally, we proposed a novel ferrofluid dynamic vibration absorber in this paper, and its damping efficiency was verified with experiments. In the end, the critical problems and research directions of the ferrofluid damping technology in the future are raised.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.501-507
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• 2017

A unimorph piezoelectric cantilever generator with an interdigitated electrode (IDE) was developed for vibration energy harvester applications driven in the longitudinal mode. Hard lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic with a high $Q_m$ of 1,280 was used as the piezoelectric active material. Ten PZT sheets produced by tape casting were laminated and co-fired with an Ag/Pd IDE at $1,050^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The approximately $280{\mu}m$-thick co-fired PZT laminate with the IDE was attached to a stainless steel substrate with an adhesive epoxy for the fabrication of an IDE unimorph cantilever. Its energy harvesting characteristics were evaluated: an output power of $1.1{\mu}W$ at 120 Hz across the resistive load of $700k{\Omega}$ was obtained, corresponding to a normalized power factor of $4.1{\mu}W/(G^2{\cdot}cm^3)$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.397-404
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• 2010

The use of equivalent circuit models of piezoelectric energy harvesters is inevitable when power circuitry including rectifying and smoothing circuit elements is connected to them for evaluating DC electrical outputs. This is because it is difficult to incorporate the electro-mechanical coupling resulting from the additional circuitry into the conventional finite element analysis. Motivated by this observation, we propose a method to accurately extract the equivalent circuit parameters by using commercially available FEM software such as ANSYS which provides three-dimensional AC piezoelectric analysis. Then the equivalent circuit can be analyzed by circuit simulators such as $SimPowerSystems^{TM}$ of MATLAB. While the previous works have estimated the circuit parameters by experimental measurements or by analytical solutions developed only for limited geometries and boundary conditions, the proposed method has no such limitation because piezoelectric energy harvesters of any shapes and boundary conditions can be treated in FEM software. For the verification of the proposed method, multi-modal AC electrical power output by using a corresponding equivalent circuit is compared with that by ANSYS. The proposed method is then shown to be very useful in the subsequent evaluation of DC electrical output which is obtained by attaching a bridge diode and a storage capacitor to a piezoelectric energy harvester.

• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1625-1642
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• 2015

We propose an electrically self-reliant structural health monitoring (SHM) system that is able to wirelessly transmit sensing data using electrical power generated by vibration without the need for additional external power sources. The provision of reliable electricity to wireless SHM systems is a highly important issue that has often been ignored, and to expand the applicability of various wireless SHM innovations, it will be necessary to develop comprehensive wireless SHM devices including stable electricity sources. In light of this need, we propose a new, highly efficient vibration-powered generator based on a tuned-mass-damper (TMD) mechanism that is quite suitable for vibration-based SHM. The charging time of the TMD generator is shorter than that of conventional generators based on the impedance matching method, and the proposed TMD generator can harvest 16 times the amount of energy that a conventional generator can. The charging time of an SHM wireless transmitter is quantitatively formulated. We conduct wireless monitoring experiments to validate a wireless SHM system composed of a self-reliant SHM and a vibration-powered TMD generator.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.263-269
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• 2017

A piezoelectric cantilever energy harvester (PCEH) driven in longitudinal (3-3) vibration mode was fabricated, and its electrical properties were evaluated by varying the resistive load. A commercial PZT piezoelectric ceramic with a high piezoelectric charge constant ($d_{33}$) of 520 pC/N and the interdigitated (IDT) electrode pattern was used to fabricate the PCEH driven in longitudinal vibration. The IDT Ag electrode embedded piezoelectric laminates were co-fired at $850^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. The 3-3 mode PCEH was successfully fabricated by attaching the piezoelectric laminates to a SUS304 elastic substrate. The PCEH exhibited a high output power of 3.8 mW across the resistive load of $100k{\Omega}$ at 100 Hz and 1.5 G. This corresponds to a power density of $10.3mW/cm^3$ and a normalized global power factor of $4.56mW/g^2{\cdot}cm^3$. Given the other PCEH driven in transverse (3-1) vibration mode, the 3-3 mode PCEH could be better for vibration energy harvesting applications.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1320-1327
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• 2013

In this paper, two different electromagnetic energy harvesters using bulk micromachined silicon spiral springs and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) packaging technique have been fabricated, characterized, and compared to generate electrical energy from ultra-low ambient vibrations under 0.3g. The proposed energy harvesters were comprised of a highly miniaturized Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnet, silicon spiral spring, multi-turned copper coil, and PDMS housing in order to improve the electrical output powers and reduce their sizes/volumes. When an external vibration moves directly the magnet mounted as a seismic mass at the center of the spiral spring, the mechanical energy of the moving mass is transformed to electrical energy through the 183 turns of solenoid copper coils. The silicon spiral springs were applied to generate high electrical output power by maximizing the deflection of the movable mass at the low level vibrations. The fabricated energy harvesters using these two different spiral springs exhibited the resonant frequencies of 36Hz and 63Hz and the optimal load resistances of $99{\Omega}$ and $55{\Omega}$, respectively. In particular, the energy harvester using the spiral spring with two links exhibited much better linearity characteristics than the one with four links. It generated $29.02{\mu}W$ of output power and 107.3mV of load voltage at the vibration acceleration of 0.3g. It also exhibited power density and normalized power density of $48.37{\mu}W{\cdot}cm-3$ and $537.41{\mu}W{\cdot}cm-3{\cdot}g-2$, respectively. The total volume of the fabricated energy harvesters was $1cm{\times}1cm{\times}0.6cm$ (height).