The transformation of vibrations into electric energy through the use of piezoelectric devices is an exciting and rapidly developing area of research with a widening range of applications constantly materialising. With Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, world-leading researchers provide a timely and comprehensive coverage of the electromechanical modelling and applications of piezoelectric energy harvesters. They present principal modelling approaches, synthesizing fundamental material related to mechanical, aerospace, civil, electrical and materials engineering disciplines for vibration-based energy harvesting using piezoelectric transduction. Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting provides the first comprehensive treatment of distributed-parameter electromechanical modelling for piezoelectric energy harvesting with extensive case studies including experimental validations, and is the first book to address modelling of various forms of excitation in piezoelectric energy harvesting, ranging from airflow excitation to moving loads, thus ensuring its relevance to engineers in fields as disparate as aerospace engineering and civil engineering. Coverage includes: Analytical and approximate analytical distributed-parameter electromechanical models with illustrative theoretical case studies as well as extensive experimental validations Several problems of piezoelectric energy harvesting ranging from simple harmonic excitation to random vibrations Details of introducing and modelling piezoelectric coupling for various problems Modelling and exploiting nonlinear dynamics for performance enhancement, supported with experimental verifications Applications ranging from moving load excitation of slender bridges to airflow excitation of aeroelastic sections A review of standard nonlinear energy harvesting circuits with modelling aspects.

Mechanical Design of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters: Generating Electricity from Human Walking provides the state-of-the-art, recent mechanical designs of piezoelectric energy harvesters based on piezoelectric stacks. The book discusses innovative mechanism designs for energy harvesting from multidimensional force excitation, such as human walking, which offers higher energy density. Coverage includes analytical modeling, optimal design, simulation study, prototype fabrication, and experimental investigation. Detailed examples of their analyses and implementations are provided. The book's authors provide a unique perspective on this field, primarily focusing on novel designs for PZT Energy harvesting in biomedical engineering as well as in integrated multi-stage force amplification frame. This book presents force-amplification compliant mechanism design and force direction-transmission mechanism design. It explores new mechanism design approaches using piezoelectric materials and permanent magnets. Readers can expect to learn how to design new mechanisms to realize multidimensional energy harvesting systems. - Provides new mechanical designs of piezoelectric energy harvesters for multidimensional force excitation - Contains both theoretical and experimental results - Fully supported with real-life examples on design, modeling and implementation of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices

Vibration energy harvesters work effectively only when the operating conditions match with the available vibration source. Typical resonating MEMS structures cannot be used with low-frequency, low-amplitude and unpredictable nature of ambient vibrations. Bi-stable nonlinear oscillator based energy harvesters are developed for lowering the operating frequency while widening the bandwidth, and are realized at MEMS scale for the first time. This design concept does not rely on the resonance of the MEMS structure but operates with the large snapping motion of the beam at very low frequencies when proper conditions are provided to overcome the energy barrier between the two energy wells of the structure. A fully functional piezoelectric MEMS energy harvester is designed, monolithically fabricated and tested. An electromechanical lumped parameter model is developed to analyze the nonlinear dynamics and to guide the design of the multi-layer buckled beam structure. Residual stress induced buckling is achieved through the progressive control of the deposition along the fabrication steps. Static surface profile of the released device shows bi-stable buckling of 200 [mu]m which matches very well with the design. Dynamic testing demonstrates the energy harvester operates with 35% bandwidth under 70Hz at 0.5g, operating conditions that have not been met before by MEMS vibration energy harvesters.

The vast reduction in size and power consumption of CMOS circuitry has led to a large research effort based around the vision of wireless sensor networks. The proposed networks will be comprised of thousands of small wireless nodes that operate in a multi-hop fashion, replacing long transmission distances with many low power, low cost wireless devices. The result will be the creation of an intelligent environment responding to its inhabitants and ambient conditions. Wireless devices currently being designed and built for use in such environments typically run on batteries. However, as the networks increase in number and the devices decrease in size, the replacement of depleted batteries will not be practical. The cost of replacing batteries in a few devices that make up a small network about once per year is modest. However, the cost of replacing thousands of devices in a single building annually, some of which are in areas difficult to access, is simply not practical. Another approach would be to use a battery that is large enough to last the entire lifetime of the wireless sensor device. However, a battery large enough to last the lifetime of the device would dominate the overall system size and cost, and thus is not very attractive. Alternative methods of powering the devices that will make up the wireless networks are desperately needed.

Seeking renewable and clean energies is essential for releasing the heavy reliance on mineral-based energy and remedying the threat of global warming to our environment. In the last decade, explosive growth in research and development efforts devoted to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and nanowires-related nanotechnology have paved a great foundation for new mechanisms of harvesting mechanical energy at the micro/nano-meter scale. MEMS-based inertial sensors have been the enabler for numerous applications associated with smart phones, tablets, and mobile electronics. This is a valuable reference for all those faced with the challenging problems created by the ever-increasing interest in MEMS and nanotechnology-based energy harvesters and their applications. This book presents fundamental physics, theoretical design, and method of modeling for four mainstream energy harvesting mechanisms -- piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic, and triboelectric. Readers are provided with a comprehensive technical review and historical view of each mechanism. The authors also present current challenges in energy harvesting technology, technical reviews, design requirements, case studies, along with unique and representative examples of energy harvester applications.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have had a profound impact on a wide range of applications. The degree of miniaturization made possible by MEMS technology has significantly improved the functionalities of many systems, and the performance of MEMS has steadily improved as its uses augment. Notably, MEMS sensors have been prevalent in motion sensing applications for decades, and the sensing mechanisms leveraged by MEMS have been continuously extended to applications spanning the detection of gases, magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, and more. In parallel, MEMS resonators have become an emerging field of MEMS and affected subfields such as electronic timing and filtering, and energy harvesting. They have, in addition, enabled a wide range of resonant sensors. For many years now, MEMS have been the basis of various industrial successes, often building on novel academic research. Accordingly, this Special Issue explores many research innovations in MEMS sensors and resonators, from biomedical applications to energy harvesting, gas sensing, resonant sensing, and timing.

Special Topics in Structural Dynamics, Volume 6: Proceedings of the 31st IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, 2013, the sixth volume of seven from the Conference, brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Structural Dynamics, including papers on: Teaching Experimental & Analytical Structural Dynamics Sensors & Instrumentation Aircraft/Aerospace Bio-Dynamics Sports Equipment Dynamics Advanced ODS & Stress Estimation Shock & Vibration Full-Field Optical Measurements & Image Analysis Structural Health Monitoring Operational Modal Analysis Wind Turbine Dynamics Rotating Machinery Finite Element Methods Energy Harvesting

This book focuses on the numerous energy harvesting techniques and their system implementation towards the fulfilment of energy requirements in compact electronic devices. These cover a wide range of applications in portable devices, bio-medical services, agriculture needs, mechanical systems, sensor networks, automobiles, food sector, home appliances, industry needs, etc. The authors detail energy harvesting methods using the latest technologies in acoustics, bio-chemical, thermal, artificial light, fluid flow, vibrations, EM energy, RF energy, piezoelectric, electrostatic, photovoltaic, thermoelectric, hybrid harvesting, ultrasonic, infrared, light, wind, and solar. The book is intended for researchers, academics, professionals, and students in energy harvesting.

Energy Harvesting Autonomous Sensor Systems: Design, Analysis, and Practical Implementation provides a wide range of coverage of various energy harvesting techniques to enable the development of a truly self-autonomous and sustainable energy harvesting wireless sensor network (EH-WSN). It supplies a practical overview of the entire EH-WSN system from energy source all the way to energy usage by wireless sensor nodes/network. After an in-depth review of existing energy harvesting research thus far, the book focuses on: Outlines two wind energy harvesting (WEH) approaches, one using a wind turbine generator and one a piezoelectric wind energy harvester Covers thermal energy harvesting (TEH) from ambient heat sources with low temperature differences Presents two types of piezoelectric-based vibration energy harvesting systems to harvest impact or impulse forces from a human pressing a button or switch action Examines hybrid energy harvesting approaches that augment the reliability of the wireless sensor node’s operation Discusses a hybrid wind and solar energy harvesting scheme to simultaneously use both energy sources and therefore extend the lifetime of the wireless sensor node Explores a hybrid of indoor ambient light and TEH scheme that uses only one power management circuit to condition the combined output power harvested from both energy sources Although the author focuses on small-scale energy harvesting, the systems discussed can be upsized to large-scale renewable energy harvesting systems. The book goes beyond theory to explore practical applications that not only solve real-life energy issues but pave the way for future work in this area.