Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.5
3.2
Journals
Energies
Special Issues
Modeling and Analysis of Energy Harvesters
energies-logo
Submit to Energies Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Modeling and Analysis of Energy Harvesters

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 13236

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Abdessattar Abdelkefi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
Interests: energy harvesting; nonlinear dynamics; vibration and control; smart materials; aeroelasticity; fluid-structure interactions; micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS); flight dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Grzegorz Litak

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Automation, Lublin University of Technology, 20618 Lublin, Poland
Interests: energy harvesting; fractional derivative; structural health monitoring; shape memory alloys
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vibrational energy harvesting was invented to provide a power supply to small monitoring devices from ambient vibrations. The development of this field was stimulated by increasing the demands for the powering of portable electronics, and extending the battery life. Proposed solutions consisted of a mechanical resonator and coupled transduces changing the mechanical energy into electrical power. In the last decade, energy harvesting has undergone spectacular changes through the application of nonlinear methods, in order to broaden the frequency input. Finally, new devices are not limited to the linear resonance frequency; they offer not only frequency range broadening via inclinations of the resonance curves, but also varieties of new nonlinear resonances for large enough inputs. This Issue will provide the modelling and analysis of nonlinear energy harvesting solutions, and feature their benefits by considering systems from a nano-scale to macro-scale.

Dr. Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Dr. Grzegorz Litak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy harvesting
  • nonlinear dynamics
  • smart material
  • multiple responses
  • broadband effect
  • size dependency

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

24 pages, 10954 KiB  
Article
Comparative Study of Piezoelectric Vortex-Induced Vibration-Based Energy Harvesters with Multi-Stability Characteristics
by Rashid Naseer, Huliang Dai, Abdessattar Abdelkefi and Lin Wang
Energies 2020, 13(1), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13010071 - 21 Dec 2019
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 3693
Abstract
This work reports a comparative study on piezoelectric energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibration (VIV) with multi-stability characteristics by introducing the nonlinear magnetic forces. A lumped-parameter model for the piezoelectric cantilever-cylinder structure is considered for the sake of qualitative investigation. Firstly, the buckling displacement [...] Read more.
This work reports a comparative study on piezoelectric energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibration (VIV) with multi-stability characteristics by introducing the nonlinear magnetic forces. A lumped-parameter model for the piezoelectric cantilever-cylinder structure is considered for the sake of qualitative investigation. Firstly, the buckling displacement of harvester in monostable and bistable configurations is evaluated by virtue of a static analysis. Then, the coupled frequency and damping of the harvester varying with the electrical load resistance are determined for different values of the spacing distance between magnets. Subsequently, the dynamic behaviors and generated voltage of the harvester in two configurations are elaborately investigated, showing that varying the spacing distance is followed by a shift of lock-in region which is significant for performance optimization according to ambient wind conditions. In addition, the results show the harvester in monostable configuration displays a hardening behavior while a softening behavior takes place in bistable configuration, both of the harvester in two configurations can widen the synchronization region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling and Analysis of Energy Harvesters)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 790 KiB  
Article
Nonlinear Analysis and Performance of Electret-Based Microcantilever Energy Harvesters
by Bashar Hammad, Hichem Abdelmoula, Eihab Abdel-Rahman and Abdessattar Abdelkefi
Energies 2019, 12(22), 4249; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12224249 - 07 Nov 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2146
Abstract
An energy harvester composed of a microcantilever beam with a tip mass and a fixed electrode covered with an electret layer is investigated when subject to an external harmonic base excitation. The tip mass and fixed electrode form a variable capacitor connected to [...] Read more.
An energy harvester composed of a microcantilever beam with a tip mass and a fixed electrode covered with an electret layer is investigated when subject to an external harmonic base excitation. The tip mass and fixed electrode form a variable capacitor connected to a load resistance. A single-degree-of-freedom model, derived based on Newton’s and Kirshoff’s laws, shows that the tip mass displacement and charge in the variable capacitor are nonlinearly coupled. Analysis of the eigenvalue problem indicates the influence of the electret surface voltage and electrical load resistance on the harvester linear characteristics, namely the harvester coupled frequency and electromechanical damping. Then, the frequency–response curves are obtained numerically for a range of load resistance, electret voltage and base excitation amplitudes. A softening nonlinear effect is observed as a result of decreasing the load resistance and increasing the electret voltage. It is found that there is an optimal electret voltage with the highest harvested electrical power. Below this optimal value, the bandwidth is very small, whereas the bandwidth is large when the electret voltage is above this optimal value. In addition, it is noted that for a certain excitation frequency, the harvested power decreases or increases as a function of electrical load resistance when the coupled frequency is closer to short- or open-circuit frequency, respectively. However, when the coupled frequency is between the short-circuit and open-circuit frequencies, the harvested power has an optimal resistance with the highest power. Increasing the excitation amplitude to raise the harvested power could be accompanied with dynamic pull-in instability and/or softening behavior depending on the electrical load resistance and electret voltage. However, large softening behavior would prevent the pull-in instability, increase the level of the harvested power, and broaden the bandwidth. These observations give a deeper insight into the behavior of such energy harvesters and are of great importance to the designers of electrostatic energy harvesters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling and Analysis of Energy Harvesters)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

19 pages, 12509 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Modeling and Structural Optimization of a Bistable Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester
by Bei Zhang, Qichang Zhang, Wei Wang, Jianxin Han, Xiaoli Tang, Fengshou Gu and Andrew D. Ball
Energies 2019, 12(12), 2410; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12122410 - 23 Jun 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3368
Abstract
A novel bistable electromagnetic vibration energy harvester (BEMH) is constructed and optimized in this study, based on a nonlinear system consisting mainly of a flexible membrane and a magnetic spring. A large-amplitude transverse vibration equation of the system is established with the general [...] Read more.
A novel bistable electromagnetic vibration energy harvester (BEMH) is constructed and optimized in this study, based on a nonlinear system consisting mainly of a flexible membrane and a magnetic spring. A large-amplitude transverse vibration equation of the system is established with the general nonlinear geometry and magnetic force. Firstly, the mathematical model, considering the higher-order nonlinearities given by nonlinear Galerkin method, is applied to a membrane with a co-axial magnet mass and magnetic spring. Secondly, the steady vibration response of the membrane subjected to a harmonic base motion is obtained, and then the output power considering electromagnetic effect is analytically derived. On this basis, a parametric study in a broad frequency domain has been achieved for the BEMH with different radius ratios and membrane thicknesses. It is demonstrated that model predictions are both in close agreement with results from the finite element simulation and experiment data. Finally, the proposed efficient solution method is used to obtain an optimizing strategy for the design of multi-stable energy harvesters with the similar flexible structure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling and Analysis of Energy Harvesters)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

8 pages, 2795 KiB  
Communication
Exploiting Elastically Supported Masses in Cantilever for Resonance Frequencies Down-Shifted Vibration Energy Harvester
by Hai Wang, Bin Li, Yan Liu, Min Zhang, Wei Zhao and Hongbo Qin
Energies 2019, 12(11), 2207; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12112207 - 10 Jun 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2808
Abstract
This paper presents a piezoelectric vibration energy harvester (PVEH) with resonance frequencies shifted down by elastically supported masses. The added elastic supporters can diminish the equivalent stiffness of the whole structure, leading to an evident decline in the resonance frequency of the cantilever [...] Read more.
This paper presents a piezoelectric vibration energy harvester (PVEH) with resonance frequencies shifted down by elastically supported masses. The added elastic supporters can diminish the equivalent stiffness of the whole structure, leading to an evident decline in the resonance frequency of the cantilever body. Meantime, a new resonant peak is generated in the lower frequency range. The resonant frequency of the proposed PVEH can be easily adjusted by replacing the rubber band of the elastic support. The constructed configuration is theoretically investigated and experimentally verified. Compared with the conventional cantilever, the proposed device achieved a 46% decrease in resonance frequency and 87% enhancement in output power. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling and Analysis of Energy Harvesters)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop