A bistable buckled beam based approach for vibrational energy harvesting

Abstract This paper presents a low cost solution for vibrational energy harvesting based on a bistable clamped-clamped polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beam and two piezoelectric transducers. Beam switching (between two stable steady states) is activated by environmental vibrations. The mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion is performed by two piezoelectric transducers laterally installed to experience beam impacts each time the device switches from one stable state to the other one. The main advantage of our approach lies in the wide frequency bandwidth of the device; in turn, this leads to improved efficiency at very low cost.

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

[2]  S. Boisseau,et al.  Electrostatic Conversion for Vibration Energy Harvesting , 2012, 1210.5191.

[3]  Bruno Ando,et al.  Complex behavior in driven unidirectionally coupled overdamped Duffing elements. , 2006, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

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

[5]  S. Baglio,et al.  Investigation on Mechanically Bistable MEMS Devices for Energy Harvesting From Vibrations , 2012, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

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

[7]  B. Ando,et al.  A double piezo — Snap through buckling device for energy harvesting , 2013, 2013 Transducers & Eurosensors XXVII: The 17th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS & EUROSENSORS XXVII).

[8]  S. Beeby,et al.  Strategies for increasing the operating frequency range of vibration energy harvesters: a review , 2010 .

[9]  Luca Benini,et al.  Design of a Solar-Harvesting Circuit for Batteryless Embedded Systems , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[10]  R. Zane,et al.  Custom IC for Ultralow Power RF Energy Scavenging , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

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

[12]  Luigi Fortuna,et al.  A nonlinear model for ionic polymer metal composites as actuators , 2007 .

[13]  Jeffrey C. Lagarias,et al.  Convergence Properties of the Nelder-Mead Simplex Method in Low Dimensions , 1998, SIAM J. Optim..

[14]  Jan M. Rabaey,et al.  A study of low level vibrations as a power source for wireless sensor nodes , 2003, Comput. Commun..

[15]  Bruno Ando,et al.  A Nonlinear Energy Harvester by Direct Printing Technology , 2012 .

[16]  J. Lang,et al.  A curved-beam bistable mechanism , 2004, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[17]  Eric M. Yeatman,et al.  Energy harvesting from motion using rotating and gyroscopic proof masses , 2008 .