Piezoelectric-Based Rotary Electrical Energy Generator for Harvesting Energy from Low and Highly Variable Rotary Motion
Abstract
A class of piezoelectric-based rotary electrical-energy generator is presented in which a polygon-shaped gear is used to effectively couple the rotating shaft with multiple piezoelectric cantilevers. The relation between the input rotational speed and the output power production for a laboratory-scale device with an octagonal gear is systematically characterized both by experiments with DC-motor controlled rotation inputs and by finite-element analyses (FEA) with prescribed gear rotational speeds. The electric signals generated by each piezoelectric bimorph are shown in phase with each other as well as the total power output scales with the number of piezoelectric bimorphs. The generator outputs higher electric power over a significantly wider range of rotational frequencies than similar devices do using the piezoelectric transduction mechanism. The generated power increases almost linearly with the input rotational speed for input frequencies up to at least 300 RPM. The broadband feature of the present generator makes it ideal for power generation systems that operate with low frequent, broadband excitations like those that harvest energy from wind and tidal flows.
Recommended Citation
J. Wei and L. Duan, "Piezoelectric-Based Rotary Electrical Energy Generator for Harvesting Energy from Low and Highly Variable Rotary Motion," Proceedings of the ASME 2015 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (2015, Colorado Springs, CO), vol. 2, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Sep 2015.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1115/SMASIS2015-8879
Meeting Name
ASME 2015 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (2015: Sep 21-23, Colorado Springs, CO)
Department(s)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Center/Lab(s)
Center for High Performance Computing Research
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-0791857304
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2015 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
23 Sep 2015
