Abstract

Piezoelectric transducers are increasingly being used to harvest energy from environmental vibrations in order to either power remote sensors or charge batteries that power the sensors. In this paper, a new voltage compensation scheme for high-voltage-based (> 100 V ) energy harvesting is introduced, and its fundamental concepts, as well as the operation details, are elaborated. This scheme, when applied to the voltage inversion method [synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI)], provides an increase of over 14% in harvested power when compared to the parallel inversion method (parallel SSHI) alone and more than 50% in the case of series inversion method (series SSHI). Second, tapered cantilever beams were shown to be more effective in generating a uniform strain profile over rectangular and trapezoidal beams if they are precisely shaped, resulting in a significant increase in harvested power over available methods in the literature from laboratory experimental tests. In addition, a simplified method to design such a beam is introduced. Finally, a field test of the proposed tapered beam is conducted by using a dozer for earth-moving applications, and experimental results are discussed.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Second Department

Computer Science

Sponsor(s)

Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems

Keywords and Phrases

Cantilever Beam; Piezoelectric; Energy harvesting

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0278-0046

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2010 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2010

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