• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.637-644
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• 2010

A vibration-powered piezoelectric energy harvester yields the maximum power output when its resonant frequency is made equal to the excitation frequency; however, the power output is dramatically decreased when the energy harvester is operated at off-resonance frequency. It has been observed that the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric energy harvester may change with time and that the excitation frequency often varies when the energy harvester is used in real applications. Hence, in this study, we propose a piezoelectric energy-harvesting module that is suitable for excitations in a certain frequency range. The frequency characteristics of the electrical output of the module are studied through analysis and experiment. A simple frequency tuning method is also suggested for the proposed energy-harvesting module; in this method, frequency tuning is achieved by changing the electrical connections between the constituent energy-harvesting units of the module.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.287-303
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• 2018

Applications of energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations is becoming popular but the full potential of such applications is yet to be explored. This paper addresses this issue by considering an application of energy harvesting for the dual objective of serving as an indicator of structural health monitoring (SHM) and extent of control. Variation of harvested energy from an undamaged baseline is employed for this purpose and the concept is illustrated by implementing it for active vibrations of a pipe structure. Theoretical and experimental analyses are carried out to determine the energy harvesting potential from undamaged and damaged conditions. The use of energy harvesting as indicator for control is subsequently investigated, considering the effect of the introduction of a tuned mass damper (TMD). It is found that energy harvesting can be used for the detection and monitoring of the location and magnitude of damage occurring within a pipe structure. Additionally, the harvested energy acts as an indicator of the extent of reduction of vibration of pipes when a TMD is attached. This paper extends the range of applications of energy harvesting devices for the monitoring of built infrastructure and illustrates the vast potential of energy harvesters as smart sensors.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.488-495
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new AC/DC RPPB(Resonant Piezo-Powered Boost) converter for energy harvesting using a piezoelectric device which converts mechanical vibration energy to electrical energy. The AC/DC RPPB converter can operate with only the harvested energy without an additional power conversion circuit for switching circuit and transfer energy to a load of which the voltage is higher than piezoelectric voltage. With the review of published topologies of the converter for energy harvesting, the operation principle of the AC/DC RPPB converter, and the results of PSPICE simulation and experiment are presented to prove the feasibility of the new converter for the energy harvesting.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.955-960
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• 2011

This study was aimed at investigating the applicability of energy harvesting technologies, which are regarded as new and renewable energy sources for real-time/wireless monitoring of intelligent railroad vehicles. The surrounding energy generated in a normal operating environment was monitored using a high-speed railroad vehicle in operation. This monitoring was performed in an attempt to evaluate the effectives of energy harvesting and the applicability of energy-harvesting-monitoring technologies under the conditions in which thermal energy and vibration energy are generated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.665-678
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• 2017

In this paper the tuned mass-damper-inerter (TMDI) is considered for passive vibration control and energy harvesting in harmonically excited structures. The TMDI couples the classical tuned mass-damper (TMD) with a grounded inerter: a two-terminal linear device resisting the relative acceleration of its terminals by a constant of proportionality termed inertance. In this manner, the TMD is endowed with additional inertia, beyond the one offered by the attached mass, without any substantial increase to the overall weight. Closed-form analytical expressions for optimal TMDI parameters, stiffness and damping, given attached mass and inertance are derived by application of Den Hartog's tuning approach to suppress the response amplitude of force and base-acceleration excited single-degree-of-freedom structures. It is analytically shown that the TMDI is more effective from a same mass/weight TMD to suppress vibrations close to the natural frequency of the uncontrolled structure, while it is more robust to detuning effects. Moreover, it is shown that the mass amplification effect of the inerter achieves significant weight reduction for a target/predefined level of vibration suppression in a performance-based oriented design approach compared to the classical TMD. Lastly, the potential of using the TMDI for energy harvesting is explored by substituting the dissipative damper with an electromagnetic motor and assuming that the inertance can vary through the use of a flywheel-based inerter device. It is analytically shown that by reducing the inertance, treated as a mass/inertia-related design parameter not considered in conventional TMD-based energy harvesters, the available power for electric generation increases for fixed attached mass/weight, electromechanical damping, and stiffness properties.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.1661-1667
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• 2011

This study was intended to identify the applicability of energy harvesting technologies for powering a wireless health monitoring sensor system of railroad vehicle. As measuring surrounding energy under the normal operation environment, it is possible to predict amount of the applicable energy. The results of energy prediction represents the feasibility of power sources for wireless sensor systems through energy harvesting technologies under the circumstance in which the thermal energy and vibration energy are generated.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.416-421
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• 2011

Nowadays, the increasing demands upon mobile devices such as wireless sensor networks and the recent advent of low power electrical devices such as MEMS make such renewable power sources attractive. A vibration-driven MEMS lead zirconate titanate $Pb(Zr,Ti)O_3$ (PZT) cantilever device is developed for energy harvesting application. This paper presents a piezoelectric based energy harvester which is suitable for power generating from conventional vibration and has in providing energy for low power electron ic devices. The PZT cantilever is used d33 mode to get the electrical power. The PZT cantilever based energy harvester with the dimension of 7 mm${\times}$3 mm${\times}$0.03 mm is fabricated using micromachining technologies. This PZT cantilever has the mechanical resonance frequency with a 900 Hz. With these conditions, we get experimentally the 37 uW output power from this device with the application of 1g acceleration using the 900 Hz vibration. From this study, we show the feasibility of one of energy harvesting candidates using PZT based structure. This PZT energy harvester could be used for various applications such a batteryless micro sensors and micro power generators.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.165-166
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• 2008

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.252-257
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• 2015

This paper investigates the concept and implementation of an energy harvesting device using a ferrofluid sloshing movement to generate an electromotive force (EMF). Ferrofluids are often applied to energy harvesting devices because they have both magnetic properties and fluidity, and they behave similarly to a soft ferromagnetic substance. In addition, a ferrofluid can change its shape freely and generate an EMF from small vibrations. The existing energy harvesting techniques, for example those using piezoelectric and thermoelectric devices, generate minimal electric power, as low as a few micro-watts. Through flow analysis of ferrofluids and examination of the magnetic circuit characteristics of the resultant electromagnetic system, an energy harvester model based on an electromagnetic field generated by a ferrofluid is developed and proposed. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is demonstrated and its EMF characteristics are discussed based on experimental data.