Broadband Vibrational Energy Harvesting

能量收集器是一种很有前途的技术，可以从环境或设备的运行中捕获有用的能量。本研究将开发并实现一种新的能量采集器设计，用于在具有广泛环境振动频谱的环境中捕获振动能量。该设计使用柔性陶瓷压电元件，当机械受压时产生电能，处于平衡状态。初步的实验结果表明，与基于线性机械原理的振动能收割机不同，这种设计的收割机在很宽的强迫频率范围内都能输出可观的功率，而基于线性机械原理的振动能收割机只有在主要环境振动频率接近收割机的共振频率时才能产生可观的响应。建议的工作包括对该装置进行周期性和随机强迫的实验表征，以及将在理论上和计算上进行分析的低维和高维模型的开发。由于初步实验结果表明，这是能量收集可以最大化的地方，因此将特别注意存在混沌响应的参数和强迫制度。将确定响应对参数的依赖性，并使用多参数优化来确定能量收集优化的设备的参数值。振动能量采集器在各种产生大量振动能量的环境中具有潜在的应用，例如汽车，火车，飞机，船舶，机械和建筑物。能量采集器可以为这些系统的辅助功能提供动力，例如用于系统监控的数据无线传输。此外，许多机械和电子系统，如自动驾驶汽车和传感器网络，都需要体积庞大的电池和/或电源来运行。如果能量收集器可以用来为这些系统提供完整或补充的电力，它们就可以降低成本和更换电池的不便。这项工作还将为压电振动能量采集器开发一个严格的建模框架，这将有利于其他研究人员在这一领域和其他压电和机械效应都很重要的领域工作。

Energy harvesters are a promising technology for capturing useful energy from the environment or a device's operation. This research will develop and implement a novel energy harvester design for capturing vibrational energy in environments with a broad ambient vibration frequency spectrum. The design uses flexible ceramic piezoelectric elements that produce electricity when mechanically strained, which are in a buckled state at equilibrium. Preliminary experimental results show that a harvester with this design can output appreciable power over a broad range of forcing frequencies, unlike harvesters of vibrational energy based on linear mechanical principles which only give appreciable response if the dominant ambient vibration frequency is close to the resonance frequency of the harvester. The proposed work includes the experimental characterization of this device for periodic and stochastic forcing, plus the development of low- and high-dimensional models that will be analyzed theoretically and computationally. Particular attention will be paid to parameter and forcing regimes for which there is chaotic response, since the preliminary experimental results suggest that this is where the energy harvesting could be maximized. The dependence of the response on parameters will be determined, and multiparameter optimization will be used to identify parameter values for the device for which the energy harvesting is optimized.Vibrational energy harvesters have potential application in a variety of environments which produce considerable vibrational energy, such as automobiles, trains, aircraft, watercraft, machinery, and buildings. Energy harvesters could power auxiliary functions for such systems, for example the wireless transmission of data for system monitoring. Furthermore, many mechanical and electronic systems such as autonomous vehicles and sensor networks require bulky batteries and/or power supplies for their operation. If energy harvesters could be used to provide complete or supplementary power for such systems, they could function with reduced cost and inconvenience of replacing their batteries. This work will also develop a rigorous modeling framework for piezoelectric vibrational energy harvesters which will be beneficial for other researchers working in this and other areas for which both piezoelectric and mechanical effects are important.