A bidirectional energy conversion circuit for piezoelectric energy harvesting and vibration exciting purposes

Piezoelectric transducers can convert the mechanical energy into electrical one with their direct piezoelectric effect, or reciprocally convert the electrical energy into mechanical one with their inverse piezoelectric effect. Various applications were developed based on either of these two effects, for example, sensors and energy harvesters using the direct piezoelectric effect and actuators using the inverse piezoelectric effect. Yet, few of them have fulfilled the multi-functional purposes, which are useful in some application scenarios. This paper proposes a bidirectional energy conversion circuit (BECC) solution for the time-division energy harvesting and actuating purposes. The circuit topology is derived from the synchronized triple bias-flip circuit, which was formerly used for energy harvesting enhancement. The circuit topology and control logic for energy harvesting and actuating modes are discussed in details. Two designs are studied for investigating the potential applications of the BECC. In the linear piezoelectric structure, the BECC can be used to provide vibration excitation and then reclaim the vibration energy. Such time-division energy injection and reclamation can be used in some non-destructive structural health evaluations. The proposed BECC can be also used to realize the controllable orbit exciter in nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvesting systems. It is the first time to realize a compact and integrated orbit exciter and energy harvester by using a single interface circuit. Simulations and experiments are carried out for validating the performance of the BECC towards versatile engineering designs.

[1]  Junyi Cao,et al.  Theoretical analysis and experimental verification for improving energy harvesting performance of nonlinear monostable energy harvesters , 2016, Nonlinear Dynamics.

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

[3]  P. D. Mitcheson,et al.  Power-Extraction Circuits for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters in Miniature and Low-Power Applications , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

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

[5]  Chen Chen,et al.  Parallel synchronized septuple bias-flip circuit for piezoelectric energy harvesting enhancement , 2017, IECON 2017 - 43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.

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

[7]  Akira Sone,et al.  Global stabilization of high-energy response for a Duffing-type wideband nonlinear energy harvester via self-excitation and entrainment , 2013 .

[8]  Lihua Tang,et al.  Obtaining high-energy responses of nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester by voltage impulse perturbations , 2017 .

[9]  P. Curie,et al.  Développement par compression de l'électricité polaire dans les cristaux hémièdres à faces inclinées , 1880 .

[10]  Mickaël Lallart,et al.  Piezoelectric conversion and energy harvesting enhancement by initial energy injection , 2010 .

[11]  Wei Wang,et al.  Influence of potential well depth on nonlinear tristable energy harvesting , 2015 .

[12]  D. Guyomar,et al.  Toward energy harvesting using active materials and conversion improvement by nonlinear processing , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[13]  Kang Zhao,et al.  Series Synchronized Triple Bias-Flip (S-S3BF) Interface Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting , 2019, 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS).

[14]  Junrui Liang,et al.  Synchronized Triple Bias-Flip Interface Circuit for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Enhancement , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

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

[16]  Junrui Liang.  Synchronized bias-flip interface circuits for piezoelectric energy harvesting enhancement: A general model and prospects , 2017 .

[17]  Bruno Ando,et al.  A bistable buckled beam based approach for vibrational energy harvesting , 2014 .

[18]  Gabriel A. Rincón-Mora,et al.  A single-inductor 0.35µm CMOS energy-investing piezoelectric harvester , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.