Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

This review paper focuses on one of the progressive method of energy harvesting using piezoelectric material. Energy Harvesting is a process of capturing energy surrounding system such as vibration and converted that vibration into electrical energy. In this paper we are using a piezoelectric material for harvesting a power. There are two types of piezoelectric material such as crystal and ceramics. Piezoelectric material has two properties, first one is when a mechanical force is applied on any piezoelectric material it produces an electric charge on it and another one is when a electrical force is applied on piezoelectric material it produces a mechanical distortion. I.e. it converts a mechanical vibration into electrical energy. Energy generation from conventional sources it being polluted hence power generation from piezoelectric material is free from environmental pollution.

2017

This article reviews the mechanics of energy harvesting from various mechanical vibrations. Contemporary approach in hand-held electronic gadgets and low power sensors for wireless networks require a continuous or long battery life for uninturupted performance. Hence, there is a need for permanent and compact power supplies for advanced electronic devices. The most important part of the transducer is energy harvester which converts mechanical vibrations into electrical energy. Piezoelectric materials are important for energy conversion from mechanical vibrations. There has been a lot of research work to establish simple, clean and energy-e cient vibration-harvesting devices using piezoelectric materials. These piezoelectric substances are generally classi ed into piezoelectric ceramics and piezoelectric polymers. This review article discusses various piezoelectric materials and reviews some important device con gurations for piezo-electric energy harvesters.

Journal de Physique IV (Proceedings), 2005

This paper compares the performances of vibration-powered electrical generators using a piezoelectric ceramic and a piezoelectric single crystal associated to several power conditioning interfaces. A new approach of the piezoelectric power conversion based on a non linear voltage processing is presented, leading to three novel high-performance techniques. Theoretical predictions and experimental results show that the novel techniques may increase the power harvested above 800% compared to standard techniques.

Due to the development of ultra-low power portable electronics and wireless sensors, the use of ambient energy, such as vibration energy for harvesting energy using piezoelectric materials has aroused great interests. A number of techniques have been proposed by the researchers for harvesting energy from the vibration source. Mostly, the techniques are classified as narrowband or broadband depending on the range of frequencies in which they produce maximum power. Substantial research has been done by the researchers in both these areas and countless techniques are proposed in order to harvest maximum power. A study is needed to compare these techniques to suggest a proper technique for a typical application. This paper presents a detailed categorization of the various piezoelectric energy harvesting techniques and also covering each of them with suitable examples. The pros and cons of each technique are also presented.

Materials Today: Proceedings, 2018

Lead Zirconate Titanates (PZTs) are piezoelectric materials which produce electric charges on application of mechanical stress (direct effect) or undergo dimensional change when subjected to an electric field (converse effect). PZTs are most widely used as sensors and actuators for active vibration control of aero structures, structural health monitoring (SHM), precision opening and closing of valves, sonar transducer etc. In recent years, the direct piezoelectric effect has been used for vibration energy harvesting. For example, PZT discs embedded in a shoe produce electric charges during walking which are used for charging of mobiles. Similarly, PZT tiles laid down on roads produce electric energy due to movement of vehicles and the energy is used for lighting street lights. The energy generated using PZTs are in the range of mico to milli watts, suitable for powering low power electronic devices such as wireless sensor networks. At CSIR-NAL, PZT materials are prepared in-house and different types of devices eg. unimorphs, bimorphs and multi-layered (ML) stacks are fabricated. In recent years, the devices are used for energy harvesting studies at RWRDC, HAL, Bangalore. The output voltage obtained from PZT unimorphs (5V) was more compared to energy produced from bimorphs and ML stacks. Also, PZT unimorph with large surface area produce more output voltage.

This article reviews the fundamental behavior of piezoelectric for applications in sensors and energy harvesting technologies. In fact, many devices and applications are evolving day-today depending on smart materials technology such as, scanning probe microscope (SPM) and cigarette lighters. Today, vibration based energy harvesting via piezoelectric materials has become one of the most prominent ways to provide a limited energy for self-powered wireless sensor and low power electronics. This review provides an insight that involves mathematical modeling of constitutive equations, lumped parameter model, mechanisms of piezoelectric energy conversion, and operating principle of a piezoelectric energy harvesting system. This article also focuses on the dielectric, piezoelectric, mechanical, and pyroelectric properties of piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials open to use from single crystal such as PMN-PT through ceramics PZT and polymers such as PVDF. Recent important literature is also reviewed along with energy harvesting devices proposed for use in industrial and biomedical applications.

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2013

This paper describes a new way of manufacturing efficient vibration energy harvesters using thick films of piezoelectrics. The presented fabrication process is based on the thinning of high-density bulk Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) ceramic substrates, which enables the realization of thick layers (10-100 μm). Using this fabrication approach, we prepared two types of cantilever-based vibration energy scavengers (unimorph and bimorph) operating at very low frequency (~15 Hz) with a 50 µm PZT final thickness. Given that under a harmonic 10 mg vibration the harvested mean power was 1.3 µW and 3 µW respectively, these devices rank among the best ever-reported vibration energy scavengers according to commonly accepted figures of merit. The presented fabrication approach is therefore believed to be a good candidate for the manufacturing of highly efficient piezoelectric energy scavengers operating at very low frequency.

Journal of Asian Ceramic Societies, 2014

In this article, the performance of various piezoelectric materials is simulated for the unimorph cantilevertype piezoelectric energy harvester. The finite element method (FEM) is used to model the piezolaminated unimorph cantilever structure. The first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and linear piezoelectric theory are implemented in finite element simulations. The genetic algorithm (GA) optimization approach is carried out to optimize the structural parameters of mechanical energy-based energy harvester for maximum power density and power output. The numerical simulation demonstrates the performance of lead-free piezoelectric materials in unimorph cantilever-based energy harvester. The lead-free piezoelectric material K 0.5 Na 0.5 NbO 3-LiSbO 3-CaTiO 3 (2 wt.%) has demonstrated maximum mean power and maximum mean power density for piezoelectric energy harvester in the ambient frequency range of 90-110 Hz. Overall, the lead-free piezoelectric materials of K 0.5 Na 0.5 NbO 3-LiSbO 3 (KNN-LS) family have shown better performance than the conventional lead-based piezoelectric material lead zirconate titanate (PZT) in the context of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices.

Institute of Problems of Mechanical Engineering, 2013

"Energy harvesting is the act of scavenging small amounts of power from the ambient energy resources. Such ambient energy can come from various green energy sources such as solar, thermal, wind, and kinetic energy. These amounts of energy can power up sensor nodes and therefore reduce the wiring complications or eliminate the need of changing batteries frequently. Two of the most popular methods for harvesting energy consisted of the application of piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials in scavenging energy from vibration and thermal gradients, respectively. This paper presents a hybrid harvesting technique by piezoelectric and pyroelectric effect, simultaneously. The concept of method and theoretical analysis is presented in details for parallel and series SSHI (synchronize switch harvesting on inductor). Numerical results are examined and show better performance compare with piezogenerators for PZT and PMN-0.25PT elements. In this paper it has been proven that hybrid energy harvesting energy by pyroelectric and piezoelectric effect, simultaneously, increases almost 38 % and 53 % more power as it does harvest by just piezoelectric effect. Followed by mentioned analyses the effect of three important parameters - temperature amplitude, vibration amplitude, and frequency- are examined. The more effective harvesting method and material is proposed in the final part of the paper. "

Shock and Vibration Digest, 2004

The process of acquiring the energy surrounding a system and converting it into usable electrical energy is termed power harvesting. In the last few years, there has been a surge of research in the area of power harvesting. This increase in research has been brought on by the modern advances in wireless technology and low-power electronics such as microelectromechanical systems. The advances have allowed numerous doors to open for power harvesting systems in practical real-world applications. The use of piezoelectric materials to capitalize on the ambient vibrations surrounding a system is one method that has seen a dramatic rise in use for power harvesting. Piezoelectric materials have a crystalline structure that provides them with the ability to transform mechanical strain energy into electrical charge and, vice versa, to convert an applied electrical potential into mechanical strain. This property provides these materials with the ability to absorb mechanical energy from their surroundings, usually ambient vibration, and transform it into electrical energy that can be used to power other devices. While piezoelectric materials are the major method of harvesting energy, other methods do exist; for example, one of the conventional methods is the use of electromagnetic devices. In this paper we discuss the research that has been performed in the area of power harvesting and the future goals that must be achieved for power harvesting systems to find their way into everyday use.