Modeling and power performance improvement of a piezoelectric energy harvester for low-frequency vibration environment

A novel oscillator structure, bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with two-stepped variable thicknesses,is proposed to improve the energy harvestingperformance of the vibration energy harvester (VEH) under low-frequency vibration environment. Firstly, the piezoelectric cantilever is segmented to obtain the energy functions based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam assumptions, and the Galerkin approach is utilized to discretize the energy functions. Applying boundary conditions and continuity conditions enforced at separation locations, the electromechanical coupled governing equations for the piezoelectric energy harvesterareintroduced by means of the Lagrange equations. Furthermore, the steady state response expressions are obtained for harmonic base excitations at arbitrary frequencies. Numerical results are computed and the effects ofthe lengths-ratio, thicknesses-ratio,end thicknessand load resistance on the output voltage, harvested power and power density are discussed. Moreover, to verify thecorrectness ofanalytical results, the finite element method (FEM)simulationis also conducted to analyze performance of the proposed VEH, where a good agreement is presented. All the results show thatthe present oscillator structureis moreefficient than the conventional uniform beam structure, specifically, for vibration energy harvesting in low-frequency environment.

Low-frequency and broadband vibration energy harvester driven by mechanical impact based on layer-separated piezoelectric beam

Vibration energy harvesting is to transform the ambient mechanical energy to electricity. How to reduce the resonance frequency and improve the conversion efficiency is very important. In this paper, a layer-separated piezoelectric cantilever beam is proposed for the vibration energy harvester(VEH) for low-frequency and wide-bandwidth operation, which can transform the mechanical impact energy to electric energy. First,the electromechanical coupling equation is obtained by the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory.Based on the average method, the approximate analytical solution is derived and the voltage response is obtained. Furthermore, the physical prototype is fabricated, and the vibration experiment is conducted to validate the theoretical principle. The experimental results show that the maximum power of 0.445 μW of the layer-separated VEH is about3.11 times higher than that of the non-impact harvester when the excitation acceleration is 0.2 g. The operating frequency bandwidth can be widened by increasing the stiffness of the fundamental layer and decreasing the gap distance of the system. But the increasing of operating frequency bandwidth comes at the cost of reducing peak voltage. The theoretical simulation and the experimental results demonstrate good agreement which indicates that the proposed impact-driving VEH device has advantages for low-frequency and wide-bandwidth. The high performance provides great prospect to scavenge the vibration energy in environment.

Vibration absorption of parallel-coupled nonlinear energy sink under shock and harmonic excitations

Nonlinear energy sink(NES)can passively absorb broadband energy from primary oscillators.Proper multiple NESs connected in parallel exhibit superior performance to single-degree-of-freedom(SDOF)NESs.In this work,a linear coupling spring is installed between two parallel NESs so as to expand the application scope of such vibration absorbers.The vibration absorption of the parallel and parallel-coupled NESs and the system response induced by the coupling spring are studied.The results show that the responses of the system exhibit a significant difference when the heavier cubic oscillators in the NESs have lower stiffness and the lighter cubic oscillators have higher stiffness.Moreover,the efficiency of the parallel-coupled NES is higher for medium shocks but lower for small and large shocks than that of the parallel NESs.The parallel-coupled NES also shows superior performance for medium harmonic excitations until higher response branches are induced.The performance of the parallel-coupled NES and the SDOF NES is compared.It is found that,regardless of the chosen SDOF NES parameters,the performance of the parallel-coupled NES is similar or superior to that of the SDOF NES in the entire force range.

Research on a New Control Strategy of Three Phase Inverter for Unbalanced Loads

One of the very important functions of three-phase inverter is to maintain the symmetric three-phase output voltage when the three-phase loads are unbalanced. Although the traditional symmetrical component decomposing and superimpose theory can keep the voltage balance through compensating the positive-, negative- and zero-sequence components of the output voltage of inverter, however, this method is time-consuming and not suitable for control. Aiming at high power medium frequency inverter source, a P+Resonant (Proportion and Resonant) controller which ensured a balanced three phase output voltage under unbalanced load is proposed in this paper. The regulator was proved to be applicable to both three-phase three-wire system and three-phase four-wire system and developed two methods of realization. The simulation results verified that this method can suppressed effectively the output voltage distorted caused by the unbalanced load and attained a high quality voltage waveforms.

A New Type Power Converter and Its Application Prospect in Industry

A new type power convertsion mode is structured by combineing switch power conversion mode with linear amplifica-tion mode, so as to acquire their integrated optimal performances. The theoretical analyses and experimental results are presented in this paper. They are proved that the new type converter can match many kinds of loads, including nonlinear loads, with strong robustness, good waveforms and high efficiency. Its application prospect in industry can be expected, particularly for the conditions where serious static and dynamic performances are required.

Mass spectrometry analysis of intact protein N-glycosylation signatures of cells and sera in pancreatic adenocarcinomas

Pancreatic cancer is among the most malignant cancers,and thus early intervention is the key to better survival outcomes.However,no methods have been derived that can reliably identify early precursors of development into malignancy.Therefore,it is urgent to discover early molecular changes during pancreatic tumorigenesis.As aberrant glycosylation is closely associated with cancer progression,numerous efforts have been made to mine glycosylation changes as biomarkers for diagnosis;however,detailed glycoproteomic information,especially site-specific N-glycosylation changes in pancreatic cancer with and without drug treatment,needs to be further explored.Herein,we used comprehensive solid-phase chemoenzymatic glycoproteomics to analyze glycans,glycosites,and intact glycopeptides in pancreatic cancer cells and patient sera.The profiling of N-glycans in cancer cells revealed an increase in the secreted glycoproteins from the primary tumor of MIA PaCa-2 cells,whereas human sera,which contain many secreted glycoproteins,had significant changes of glycans at their specific glycosites.These results indicated the potential role for tumor-specific glycosylation as disease biomarkers.We also found that AMG-510,a small molecule inhibitor against Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog(KRAS)G12C mutation,profoundly reduced the glycosylation level in MIA PaCa-2 cells,suggesting that KRAS plays a role in the cellular glycosylation process,and thus glycosylation inhibition contributes to the anti-tumor effect of AMG-510.

Influence of the structure and composition of Fe–Mn binary oxides on rGO on As(Ⅲ) removal from aquifers

Fe–Mn binary oxide(FMBO) possesses high efficiency for As(Ⅲ) abatement based on the good adsorption affinity of iron oxide and the oxidizing capacity of Mn(Ⅳ), and the composition and structure of FMBO play important roles in this process.To compare the removal performance and determine the optimum formula for FMBO, magnetic graphene oxide(MRGO)–FMBO and MRGO–MnO2 were synthesized with MRGO as a carrier to improve the dispersity of the adsorbents in aquifers and achieve magnetic recycling.Results indicated that MRGO–FMBO had higher As(Ⅲ) removal than that of MRGO–MnO2,although the ratios of Fe and Mn were similar, because the binary oxide of Fe and Mn facilitated electron transfer from Mn(Ⅳ) to As(Ⅲ), while the separation of Mn and Fe on MRGO–MnO2 restricted the process.The optimal stoichiometry x for MRGO–FMBO(MnxFe3-xO4) was 0.46, and an extraordinary adsorption capacity of 24.38 mg/g for As(Ⅲ) was achieved.MRGO–FMBO showed stable dispersive properties in aquifers, and exhibited excellent practicability and reusability, with a saturation magnetization of 7.6 emu/g and high conservation of magnetic properties after 5 cycles of regeneration and reuse.In addition, the presence of coexisting ions would not restrict the practical application of MRGO–FMBO in groundwater remediation.The redox reactions of As(Ⅲ) and Mn(Ⅳ) on MRGO–FMBO were also described.The deprotonated aqueous As(Ⅲ) on the surface of MRGO–FMBO transferred electrons to Mn(Ⅳ), and the formed As(Ⅴ) oxyanions were bound to ferric oxide as inner-sphere complexes by coordinating their "–OH" groups with Mn(Ⅳ)oxides at the surface of MRGO–FMBO.This work could provide new insights into highperformance removal of As(Ⅲ) in aquifers.