A wideband integrated piezoelectric bistable generator: Experimental performance evaluation and potential for real environmental vibrations

Bistable generators have been proposed as potential solutions to the challenge of variable vibration frequencies. This article presents a novel mono-block design of bistable generator based on mechanical buckling effect. A bistable structure composed of four thin beams as flexible hinges, two amplified piezoelectric stacks as electromechanical springs, and a dynamic mass is fabricated. Its volume is 5.46 cm3, and it reaches a power density of 0.48 mW/cm3. The wideband and high-power energy harvesting properties are first validated using chirp excitations with an obtained bandwidth of 11 Hz (812% improvement compared with the linear equivalent case). The generator’s good performance is then further confirmed for bandlimited noise excitations and a real vibration signal from a driving car wheel.

[1]  Brian P. Mann,et al.  Investigations of a nonlinear energy harvester with a bistable potential well , 2010 .

[2]  S. Beeby,et al.  Energy harvesting vibration sources for microsystems applications , 2006 .

[3]  Igor Neri,et al.  Nonlinear oscillators for vibration energy harvesting , 2009 .

[4]  Bruno Ando,et al.  Two Dimensional Bistable Vibration Energy Harvester , 2012 .

[5]  Luca Gammaitoni,et al.  A real vibration database for kinetic energy harvesting application , 2012 .

[6]  Benjamin A. M. Owens,et al.  Melnikov theoretic methods for characterizing the dynamics of the bistable piezoelectric inertial generator in complex spectral environments , 2012 .

[7]  Adrien Badel,et al.  Novel piezoelectric bistable oscillator architecture for wideband vibration energy harvesting , 2013 .

[8]  I. Kovacic,et al.  Potential benefits of a non-linear stiffness in an energy harvesting device , 2010 .

[9]  Chengkuo Lee,et al.  Investigation of a MEMS piezoelectric energy harvester system with a frequency-widened-bandwidth mechanism introduced by mechanical stoppers , 2012 .

[10]  S. Baglio,et al.  Improved Energy Harvesting from Wideband Vibrations by Nonlinear Piezoelectric Converters , 2010 .

[11]  L. Gammaitoni,et al.  Nonlinear energy harvesting. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[12]  Jens Twiefel,et al.  Survey on broadband techniques for vibration energy harvesting , 2013 .

[13]  Henry A. Sodano,et al.  A review of power harvesting using piezoelectric materials (2003–2006) , 2007 .

[14]  Louis van Blarigan,et al.  A broadband vibrational energy harvester , 2012 .

[15]  Sang-Gook Kim,et al.  Ultra-wide bandwidth piezoelectric energy harvesting , 2011 .

[16]  Yaowen Yang,et al.  Toward Broadband Vibration-based Energy Harvesting , 2010 .

[17]  P. Hagedorn,et al.  A piezoelectric bistable plate for nonlinear broadband energy harvesting , 2010 .

[18]  Zhihua Feng,et al.  Right-angle piezoelectric cantilever with improved energy harvesting efficiency , 2010 .

[19]  Just L. Herder,et al.  Bistable vibration energy harvesters: A review , 2013 .

[20]  Ryan L. Harne,et al.  A review of the recent research on vibration energy harvesting via bistable systems , 2013 .

[21]  Marco Ferrari,et al.  Piezoelectric buckled beams for random vibration energy harvesting , 2012 .

[22]  Fan Zhang,et al.  A Batteryless 19 $\mu$W MICS/ISM-Band Energy Harvesting Body Sensor Node SoC for ExG Applications , 2013, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[23]  D. Inman,et al.  Broadband piezoelectric power generation on high-energy orbits of the bistable Duffing oscillator with electromechanical coupling , 2011 .

[24]  Adrien Badel,et al.  Energy harvesting from ambient vibrations: Electromagnetic device and synchronous extraction circuit , 2013 .

[25]  Joseph A. Paradiso,et al.  Energy scavenging for mobile and wireless electronics , 2005, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[26]  Bin Ju,et al.  Improved strain distribution of cantilever piezoelectric energy harvesting devices using H-shaped proof masses , 2013 .