TY - JOUR
T1 - A magnet-induced buckled-beam piezoelectric generator for wideband vibration-based energy harvesting
AU - Zhu, Yang
AU - Zu, Jean
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2014.
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - This article presents a magnet-induced buckled-beam piezoelectric generator developed for broadband vibration-based energy harvesting at low frequencies (<60 Hz) and small excitations (\0.5g). The harvester is made of a clamped- clamped piezoelectric beam, with one end movable and subjected to a magnet-induced compressive force. Due to the magnetic force, the beam becomes buckled and bistable. The harvester works as a double-well potential oscillator under excitations, where large-amplitude inter-well oscillation is produced to enhance the energy harvesting functionality. Numerical simulations show that the proposed harvester exhibits strong nonlinearities under harmonic excitations, including snap-through motions, large-amplitude voltage outputs, and broad frequency bandwidth. A prototype harvester is fabricated and experimentally investigated to confirm the findings from numerical simulations. It is observed that for a small base excitation of 0.35g, the harvester can produce a broad frequency bandwidth of 25.0 Hz (24.0-49.0 Hz) to constantly trigger inter-well snap-through motions and to maintain a peak-to-peak voltage of >10 V over a 1.3 MΩ load resistor. For a relatively larger base excitation of 0.5g, such a frequency bandwidth can be further widened to 29.5 Hz.
AB - This article presents a magnet-induced buckled-beam piezoelectric generator developed for broadband vibration-based energy harvesting at low frequencies (<60 Hz) and small excitations (\0.5g). The harvester is made of a clamped- clamped piezoelectric beam, with one end movable and subjected to a magnet-induced compressive force. Due to the magnetic force, the beam becomes buckled and bistable. The harvester works as a double-well potential oscillator under excitations, where large-amplitude inter-well oscillation is produced to enhance the energy harvesting functionality. Numerical simulations show that the proposed harvester exhibits strong nonlinearities under harmonic excitations, including snap-through motions, large-amplitude voltage outputs, and broad frequency bandwidth. A prototype harvester is fabricated and experimentally investigated to confirm the findings from numerical simulations. It is observed that for a small base excitation of 0.35g, the harvester can produce a broad frequency bandwidth of 25.0 Hz (24.0-49.0 Hz) to constantly trigger inter-well snap-through motions and to maintain a peak-to-peak voltage of >10 V over a 1.3 MΩ load resistor. For a relatively larger base excitation of 0.5g, such a frequency bandwidth can be further widened to 29.5 Hz.
KW - Bistable structure
KW - Broad frequency bandwidth
KW - Buckled beam
KW - Low frequency
KW - Magnetic force
KW - Nonlinear vibrations
KW - Piezoelectric energy harvesting
KW - Snap through
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U2 - 10.1177/1045389X14541498
DO - 10.1177/1045389X14541498
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84927710993
SN - 1045-389X
VL - 25
SP - 1890
EP - 1901
JO - Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures
JF - Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures
IS - 14
ER -