Introduction to Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting-from the Aspect of Mechanical Structure

Speaker: Professor Wei-Jiun Su (Departement of Mechanical Engineering,NTU)

Emerging trends such as automation, machine learning and the internet of things (IoT) are
driving smart city adoption. Theoretically, any area of city management can be incorporated into
a smart city initiative. Energy conservation and efficiency are major focuses of smart cities
(include the intelligence industry or factory). Using smart sensors as a key Components to provide
information, for examples smart streetlights dim when there aren't cars or pedestrians on the
roadways. Smart grid technology can be used to improve operations, maintenance and planning,
and to supply power on demand and monitor energy outages. Smart city initiatives also aim to
monitor and address environmental concerns such as climate change and air pollution. Sanitation
can also be improved with smart technology, be it using internet-connected trash cans and IoT-
enabled fleet management systems for waste collection and removal. Based on the explanation
above, smart cities need power sources, especially power sources of sensor nodes. There are three
options of power source of sensor nodes: 1. Battery – maintenance, 2. Wire – portability (connect
\

Figure 1. smart city and factory components (source: ulalaLAB [4])

There’s abundant energy in our environment, Energy harvesting is a method to generate

electrical power from natural (green) energy sources such as: Solar, wind, wave energy, and hydro-
electricity, for high power generation in megawatts Vibration, geothermal, light, and RF for low
power generation in milliwatts, The challenges is how that ambient energy can converted into
usable electrical energy to power application. Therefore, the need of harvesting ambient energy to
power the electronic devices in these situations arises. Technology is reaching the point where we
can make practical useful system down to the mili-watts or even lower range. And at that range, it
becomes possible to harvest some energy out of environment, Benefit of energy harvesting is : -
long lasting operability, no chemical disposal, cost saving, maintenance free, no charging points
required, inaccessible sites operability, flexibility.
 Figure 2. Hierarchy of main energy harvesting technologies.(source: researchgate;[1])
There are various methods to convert mechanical energy from vibrating or moving objects
into electrical energy needed by electronic devices, including electromagnetic induction,
electrostatic induction, and the piezoelectric effect. Compared with electromagnetic and
electrostatic methods, energy harvesting with piezoelectric materials provides higher energy
density and higher flexibility of being integrated into a system, Piezoelectric materials are perfectly
used for energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources, because they can efficiently convert
mechanical strain to an electrical charge without any additional power and have a simple
mechanical structure.and thus has been the most widely studied.
Table1. the comparison of the types of electricity
Type Advantage Disadvantage
Electromagnetic  Robust  Bulky (magnet +
 No need of smart pick-up oil)
material
Electrostatic  No need of smart  Pre – charge required
material
 Compatible with
MEMS
Piezoelectric  Compatible with  Ceramic/PZT: brittle
MEMS  PVDF: poor coupling
 Power density higher
than the above two
Magnetostrictive  High coupling  Pick – up coil
coefficient > 0.9
 Robust

Efficiency and power density of a piezoelectric vibrational energy harvesting device are
strongly frequency dependent because the piezoelectric generates maximum power at its resonance
frequency, frequency in different sources are different. Vibration sources :- bridge- vehicle- human
activity- machine, Resonance frequency , Most machinery equipment has a frequency of 100 Hz
or higher, whereas human or animal motion exhibits a much lower frequency, typically within the
1–30 Hz range. Factor of energy capacity: Vibration amplitude and frequency (how much energy
can extract), Size of an energy harvesting , Transduction mechanism (need a better transduction)
,Power processing electronics (convert to dc powers), Vibration transducer convert kinetic energy
into electricity. Piezoelectric transducers are frequently used in inertial generators. These systems
are composed of a fixed reference, which transmits vibrations to an inertial mass located on a
mechanical moving part, when an external acceleration is applied. Piezoelectric materials provide
transduction, exploiting the mechanical strain occurring in such devices. Inertial generators can
be described as a second order mass-spring-damper system , along with a piezoelectric element
connected parallel to the damper [Figure 3]. The system is governed by the following equation
of motion:

Figure 3. (a) Mass-spring-damper-piezo model and (b) its resonant behavior.(source:[1])

A piezoelectric transducer used as an actuator can alter the stiffness of a system. In fact,
the stiffness of the piezoelectric material itself can be varied with various shunt electrical load.
Hence, piezoelectric transducers provide another option for resonance tuning. It should be
emphasized that the notion “piezoelectric methods” refers to the methods for resonance tuning
using piezoelectric transducers. The energy generation method could be electrostatic,
electromagnetic, or piezoelectric conversion. Configurations with Resonance tuning - circuit
methods (moving proof mass), changing stiffness by preload, and changing stiffness by magnets.
Multimodel energy harvesting are usually implemented by exploiting multiple bending modes of
a continuous beam or by an array of cantilevers, Exploiting Multiple Bending Modes of a
Continuous Beam and the last explanation is about Nonlinear Energy Harvesting (geometric-
nonlinear, magnetic force).
The conclusion is, the limit in terms of harvested energy density has still to be overcome. And
therefore, the need of harvesting ambient energy to power the electronic devices in these situations
arises, This has been the main technological challenge so far. the adaption to the system changes
should be at all the levels of the supply and consumption interactions. A good energy
characterization of loads is essential to help effectively in power adaptation problem. The power
generated by piezoelectric materials is far too small to power most electronics. Therefore, methods
of increasing the amount of energy generated by the power harvesting device or developing new
and innovative methods of accumulating the energy are the key technologies that will allow energy
harvesting to become a power source for portable electronics and wireless sensors. The integration
of technologies with piezoelectric technology are needed for increasing the generator power output
from different sources like solar, RF, and vibration.
References:
[1] Design considerations for piezoelectric energy harvesting systems :
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261447850_Design_considerations_for_piezoele
ctric_energy_harvesting_systems .
[2] Broadband Vibration Energy Harvesting Techniques:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f982/bed7f59d1fc0cfd0e40ba6b931fa107408b3.pdf
[3]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260717543_Piezoelectric_
Energy_Harvesting_Solutions
[4] http://www.ulalalab.com/blog/eng/