A piezoelectric wafer-stack vibration energy harvester for wireless sensor networks

Jiang, X; Li, Y; Li, J

A piezoelectric wafer-stack vibration energy harvester for wireless sensor networks

Jiang, X Li, Y

Li, J

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 2013, 8692
Issue Date:: 2013-06-12

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Jiang, X	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Li, Y https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6720-8493	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Li, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2526-3048	en_US
dc.date.issued	2013-06-12	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 2013, 8692	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9780819494757	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0277-786X	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/28415
dc.description.abstract	Over the past few decades, wireless sensor networks have been widely used in civil structure health monitoring application. Currently, most wireless sensor networks are battery-powered and it is costly and unsustainable for maintenance because of the requirement for frequent battery replacements. As an attempt to address such issue, this paper presents a novel piezoelectric vibrational energy harvester to convert the structural vibration into usable electrical energy for powering wireless sensor networks. Unlike the normal cantilever beam structure, the piezoelectric harvester presented in this paper is based on the wafer-stack configuration which is suitable for applications where large force vibration occurs, and therefore can be embedded in civil structures to convert the force induced by vibration of large structures directly into electrical energy. The longitudinal mode of the piezoelectric wafer-stack was developed firstly to illustrate the force-to-voltage relationship of piezoelectric materials and to find the inter-medium force that will be used to convert vibration energy into electrical energy. Then, two electromechanical models (without and with a rectified circuit), considering both the mechanical and electrical aspects of the harvester, were developed to characterize the harvested electrical power under the external load. Exact closed-form expressions of the electromechanical models have been derived to analyze the maximum harvested power and the optimal resistance. Finally, a shake table experimental testing was conducted to prove the feasibility of the presented piezoelectric-wafer-stack harvester under standard sinusoidal loadings. Test results show that the harvester can generate a maximum 45mW (AC) or 16mW (DC) electrical power for sinusoidal loading with 40mm amplitude and 2Hz frequency, and the harvested electrical power is proportional to the levels of exciting vibrational loading. © 2013 SPIE.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1117/12.2009630	en_US
dc.title	A piezoelectric wafer-stack vibration energy harvester for wireless sensor networks	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.citation.volume	8692	en_US
utslib.for	0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering	en_US
dc.location.activity	San Diego, USA	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CBI - Centre for Built Infrastructure
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	8692	en_US

Abstract:

Over the past few decades, wireless sensor networks have been widely used in civil structure health monitoring application. Currently, most wireless sensor networks are battery-powered and it is costly and unsustainable for maintenance because of the requirement for frequent battery replacements. As an attempt to address such issue, this paper presents a novel piezoelectric vibrational energy harvester to convert the structural vibration into usable electrical energy for powering wireless sensor networks. Unlike the normal cantilever beam structure, the piezoelectric harvester presented in this paper is based on the wafer-stack configuration which is suitable for applications where large force vibration occurs, and therefore can be embedded in civil structures to convert the force induced by vibration of large structures directly into electrical energy. The longitudinal mode of the piezoelectric wafer-stack was developed firstly to illustrate the force-to-voltage relationship of piezoelectric materials and to find the inter-medium force that will be used to convert vibration energy into electrical energy. Then, two electromechanical models (without and with a rectified circuit), considering both the mechanical and electrical aspects of the harvester, were developed to characterize the harvested electrical power under the external load. Exact closed-form expressions of the electromechanical models have been derived to analyze the maximum harvested power and the optimal resistance. Finally, a shake table experimental testing was conducted to prove the feasibility of the presented piezoelectric-wafer-stack harvester under standard sinusoidal loadings. Test results show that the harvester can generate a maximum 45mW (AC) or 16mW (DC) electrical power for sinusoidal loading with 40mm amplitude and 2Hz frequency, and the harvested electrical power is proportional to the levels of exciting vibrational loading. © 2013 SPIE.

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