CAREER: Electromechanical Transduction of Vibratory Energy Harvesters in Random and Non-Stationary Environments

该教师早期职业发展（CAREER）计划奖提供了一个综合研究和教育活动的计划，用于描述随机和非平稳激励下振动能量采集器转换的物理基础。概率和非线性振动理论与计算技术和专门设计的实验模块相结合，以i）了解能量采集器对时变频率激励的响应，ii）表征随机宽带和窄带激励下的转导，iii）阐明非线性和双稳态对现实激励下性能的影响。研究任务与无数的教育活动密切相关，包括i）一个创造性的调查本科项目，涉及创建“能量收集地毯”，ii）一个名为“振动能量收集之旅”的推广计划，向高中学生及其教师介绍能量收集原则iii）广泛强调多样性和少数民族学生的招聘，及iv）发展新的研究生课程。成功完成该职业奖的目标将为开发高效和变革性的振动能量采集器奠定基础并提供必要的工具，这些振动能量采集器用于长期以来被认为不切实际的激励源，因为它们具有随机或非平稳的性质。这种收割机将使自供电健康监测传感器的广泛部署成为可能，从而避免灾难性的结构和机器故障（例如2007年明尼苏达州明尼阿波利斯附近的圣安东尼大桥倒塌），并且将减少我们对电池的依赖，电池的定期更换和充电尤其对于远程安装的设备以及对于与植入式医疗器械一起生活的患者构成重大挑战和风险。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award provides a schema of integrated research and educational activities for delineating the physical underpinnings of vibratory energy harvesters' transduction under random and non-stationary excitations. Theories in probabilities and nonlinear vibrations are combined with computational techniques and specially designed experimental modules to i) understand the response of energy harvesters to time-varying frequency excitations, ii) characterize their transduction under random broad-band and narrow-band excitations, and iii) elucidate the influence of nonlinearities and bi-stabilities on their performance under realistic excitations. Research tasks are closely tied to myriad of educational activities that include i) a creative inquiry undergraduate project that involves the creation of an "energy harvesting carpet", ii) an outreach initiative called "Journey into Vibration Energy Harvesting" introducing energy harvesting principles to high school students and their teachers iii) extensive emphasis on diversity and recruitment of minority students, and iv) development of new graduate course offerings. Successful completion of this CAREER award's objectives will lay the foundation and provide the necessary tools to develop efficient and transformative vibratory energy harvesters for excitation sources long considered impractical due to their random or non-stationary nature. Such harvesters will enable the widespread deployment of self-powered health-monitoring sensors, thusly avoiding catastrophic structural and machine failures (e.g. the 2007 St. Anthony's bridge collapse near Minneapolis, Minn.), and will reduce our dependence on batteries whose regular replacement and recharging pose significant challenges and risks especially for remotely installed devices, and for patients living with implantable medical appliances.