Exploiting Liquid-State Transduction Materials in Vibratory Energy Harvesting

该奖项旨在建立必要的基础，以评估和最大限度地提高利用液态材料（即铁磁流体）作为换能元件的振动能量采集器的换能效率。为了实现这一目标，系统的三个层次的框架，它结合了流体动力学和电磁学的理论与计算工具，被用来建模和分析的电磁流体动力学行为的液态能量收集器。在第一个层次上，非平衡分子动力学模拟实施，以确定在非平衡/动态条件下的铁磁流体纳米颗粒的微观行为和流体的相关的体材料性质之间的关系。在第二个层次上，降阶分析模型的收获系统的开发。该模型，它调用几个合理的假设的动态，是用来提供一个定性的洞察简单的设备几何形状的输出功率的设计参数的影响。在第三个层次，一个全面的计算模型的开发和使用，以量化复杂的设备几何形状和在不同的规模的收获机的输出功率。如果成功，该奖项的结果将奠定基础，并提供必要的工具来构建具有复杂几何形状和形状的可扩展，敏感和适应性的能量采集器，这反过来又将为振动能量采集开辟新的，以前被认为是不切实际的途径。这将使许多关键技术受益，包括远程无线传感器和植入式医疗设备，这些设备的自主操作因缺乏可扩展和可再生电源而受到阻碍。这项研究奋进的结果将使我们更接近“自主电子”的概念，这将提高医疗植入患者的生活质量，并有助于避免机器和结构的灾难性故障，类似于臭名昭著的圣安东尼福尔斯大桥倒塌。

This award aims to build the fundamentals necessary to evaluate and maximize the transduction efficiency of vibratory energy harvesters that utilize liquid-state materials, namely ferrofluids, as the transduction element. To achieve this goal, a systematic three-level framework, which combines theories in fluid dynamics and electromagnetics with computational tools, is used to model and analyze the electro-magnetohydrodynamic behavior of liquid-state energy harvesters. At the first level, non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are implemented to determine the relationship between the microscopic behavior of the ferrofluid nanoparticles and the associated bulk material properties of the fluid under non-equilibrium/dynamic conditions. At the second level, a reduced-order analytical model of the harvesting system is developed. The model, which invokes several justifiable assumptions on the dynamics, is used to provide a qualitative insight into the influence of the design parameters on the output power for simple device geometries. At the third level, a comprehensive computational model is developed and used to quantify the output power of the harvester for complex device geometries and at different scales. If successful, the results of this award will lay the foundation and provide the necessary tools to build scalable, sensitive, and conformable energy harvesters with complex geometries and shapes, which, in turn, will open new, and, previously considered impractical avenues for vibratory energy harvesting. This will benefit many critical technologies including remote wireless sensors and implantable medical devices whose autonomous operation has been hindered by the lack of scalable and renewable power sources. Results from this research endeavor will bring us closer to the concept of "Autonomous Electronics" which will enhance the quality of life for patients with medical implants and will help avoid catastrophic failures of machines and structures similar to the infamous Saint-Anthony Falls bridge collapse.