The dynamic characteristics of harvesting energy from mechanical vibration via piezoelectric conversion

As an alternative power solution for low-power devices, harvesting energy from the ambient mechanical vibration has received increasing research interest in recent years. In this paper we study the transient dynamic characteristics of a piezoelectric energy harvesting system including a piezoelectric energy harvester, a bridge rectifier, and a storage capacitor. To accomplish this, this energy harvesting system is modeled, and the charging process of the storage capacitor is investigated by employing the in-phase assumption The results indicate that the charging voltage across the storage capacitor and the gathered power increase gradually as the charging process proceeds, whereas the charging rate slows down over time as the charging voltage approaches to the peak value of the piezoelectric voltage across the piezoelectric materials. In addition, due to the added electrical damping and the change of the system natural frequency when the charging process is initiated, a sudden drop in the vibration amplitude is observed, which in turn affects the charging rate. However, the vibration amplitude begins to increase as the charging process continues, which is caused by the decrease in the electrical damping （i.e., the decrease in the energy removed from the mechanical vibration）. This electromechanical coupling characteristic is also revealed by the variation of the vibration amplitude with the charging voltage.

Application of Piezoelectric Materials in a Novel Linear Ultrasonic Motor based on Shear-induced Vibration Mode

A novel linear ultrasonic motor based on d15 effect of piezoelectric materials was presented. The design idea aimed at the direct utilization of the shear-induced vibration modes of piezoelectric material. Firstly, the inherent electromechanical coupling mechanism of piezoelectric material was investigated, and shear vibration modes of a piezoelectric shear block was specially designed. A driving point’s elliptical trajectory induced by shear vibration modes was discussed. Then a dynamic model for the piezoelectric shear stator was established with finite element（FE） method to conduct the parametric optimal design. Finally, a prototype based on d15 converse piezoelectric effect is manufactured, and the modal experiment of piezoelectric stator was conducted with laser doppler vibrometer. The experimental results show that the calculated shear-induced vibration modes can be excited completely, and the new linear ultrasonic motor reaches a speed 118 mm/s at noload, and maximal thrust 12.8 N.

Broadband energy harvesting via magnetic coupling between two movable magnets

Harvesting energy from ambient mechanical vibrations by the piezoelectric effect has been proposed for powering microelectromechanical systems and replacing batteries that have a finite life span. A conventional piezoelectric energy harvester （PEH） is usually designed as a linear resonator, and suffers from a narrow operating bandwidth. To achieve broadband energy harvesting, in this paper we introduce a concept and describe the realization of a novel nonlinear PEH. The proposed PEH consists of a primary piezoelectric cantilever beam coupled to an auxiliary piezoelectric cantilever beam through two movable magnets. For predicting the nonlinear response from the proposed PEH, lumped parameter models are established for the two beams. Both simulation and experiment reveal that for the primary beam, the introduction of magnetic coupling can expand the operating bandwidth as well as improve the output voltage. For the auxiliary beam, the magnitude of the output voltage is slightly reduced, but additional output is observed at off-resonance frequencies. Therefore, broadband energy harvesting can be obtained from both the primary beam and the auxiliary beam.

Development of Optical Voltage Transducer Based on Dual-Mode Highly Elliptical-Core Polarization Maintenance Fiber

This paper describes an optical voltage transducer （OVT） for the 35 kV electric power system based on modular interference in dual-mode highly elliptical-core polarization maintenance fiber （E-Core PMF）. The temperature and environmental perturb- bation can be compensated automatically. In the scheme, a quartz crystal cylinder wrapped with highly elliptical-core fiber plays the role of voltage sensor head. The two interference output lobes＇ intensity from the E-core PMF is modulated with the converse piezoelectric effect of quartz crystal. A PZT wrapped with E-core PMF at ground potential serves as the static modular phase difference control and temperature compensation unit. The experiment results indicate that the OVT designed in this paper has satisfying performance and could successfully rejects the temperature perturbation.

Ca^2+ doping effects in(K,Na,Li)(Nb0.8Ta0.2)O3 lead-free piezoelectric ceramics

Lead-free(K0.5-x/2Na0.5-x/2Lix)(Nb0.8Ta0.2)O3(KNLNT)and(K0.49-x/2Na0.49-x/2-LixCa0.01)(Nb0.8Ta0.2)O3(KNLNT-Ca)ceramics were prepared by a conventional ceramic processing.Structural analysis shows that the Ca^2+ doping takes the A site of ABO3 perovskite and decreases the phase transition temperature.Property measurements reveal that as a donor dopant,the Ca^2+ doping results in higher room-temperature dielectric constant,lower dielectric loss,and lower mechanical quality factor.In addition,the Ca^2+ doping does not change the positive piezoelectric coefficient d33,but increases the converse piezoelectric coefficient d 33*significantly.This is likely due to the increase in the relaxation,as well as the appearance of(CaNa/K·-VNa/K’)defect dipoles.