FACTORS AFFECTING MAXIMUM POWER GENERATION IN

A PIEZOELECTRIC PULSE GENERATOR

C. Keawboonchuay’, T. G. Engel+
DepaHment of Electrical and Coniputer Engineering,Universip of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO 6S211 USA

Abstract steels, a spark gap, and an inductive antenna. The model

Factors affecting maximum power generation
capabilities of a piezoelectric generator are presented in
this investigation. The goal of the investigation is to find
the factors that effect the power maximization of
piezoelectric pulse generator. In the previous
investigation, the results showed that the power of the
piezoelectric pulse generator is an increasing function of
thickness to area ratio (i.e., TAR) and the applied input
force. Increasing the TAR and input force will produce a
higher output power of the piezoelectric generator.
In this investigation, the input force limitation and
stress limitation are imposed on the maximization theory
of the piezoelectric pulse generator previously presented.
The results show that the optimum peak power is the
intersection of these two limitations. If the thickness of
the material is held constant and there is no limitation of
the applied force, increasing the applied force at the
expense of larger cross-sectional area will produce the
higher peak power. On the other hand, if the input put
force is held constant, increasing the thickness of
piezoelectric material shows the increase of peak power.
With the combination of these two findings, it can be
concluded that optimum peak power can be found at a
larger volume of the material (i.e., volume of piezoelectric
pulse generator is a scaling factor of the optimum peak
power). Increasing the volume of the material can be
done in two ways (i.e., increasing surface area or
increasing thickness). The experimental data of the
piezoelectric pulse generator are presented to verify the
theory. The theoretical and experimental results are in
good agreement. The highest peak power of the
piezoelectric pulse generator in this investigation is
113.20 kW.
I. INTRODUCTION
In this investigation, factors that affect the
maximization of piezoelectric pulse generator are
presented. Piezoelectric pulse generator is a direct energy
conversion device that converts mechanical energy into
electrical energy. The generator basically cunsists of the
stacks of the piezoelectric material between compression
of piezoelectric pulse generator has been extensively
investigated in [1-5]. The model of piezoelectric pulse
generator can he separated into mechanical and electrical
models. The investigation of how to maximize the
generated power of the piezoelectric pulse generator has
been studied in [ 6 ] . The investigation fmds the thickness
and cross-sectional area ratio, TAR, (i.e., TAR = hPfleaa IA )
of the piezoelectric material and the applied force that
maximize the generator’s generated power.
In this paper, the main focus is to investigate the factors
that affect the maximization of piezoelectric power hy
imposing the applied force and stress limitations to the
theory. The optimal point of the peak power is found as
the point that the maximum power with limitation of input
force intersects with the maximum power with the
limitation of stress. The theory also finds that increasing
the volume of the piezoelectric material can increase the
optimum peak power. The increase of the volume can be
done in either increase the surface area or the thickness.
11. OPTIMIZATION OF PIEZOELECTRIC
PULSE GENERATOR
The maximization of the piezoelectric pulse generator
power is mainly focused on the stack voltage, y,-* and
the stack current, is,aek. The previous investigation finds
the thickness and cross-sectional area ratio, TAR, of the
piezoelectric material and the applied force that maximize
the generator’s generated power [6].
Piezoelectric material has a limitation of the input stress.
It can be mechanically broken if the stress asserted on the
material is larger than the limitation. Typically, the
maximum stress of the PZT material is approximately 100
MNIm’. The second limitation is the limitation of input
force. In the real application, the input force applied to
the generator cannot be infinite. It is bound to some
mechanical limitations of the input sources. Combined
these two limitations together, the peak power of the
piezoelectric pulse generator can be shown as the
intersection of the maximum power line due to force
limitation, P,, (Fmar),and the maximum power line due to

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) 327
 stress limitation, Pmn(Tma,). As the intersection points
move up, the volume of the piezoelectric material
increases as well. .
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF
OPTIMIZATION OF PIEZOELECTRIC
PULSE GENERATOR
The experimental data that are used to verify the affect
of material volume to the generated power of the
piezoelectric pulse generator are obtained from two
separated experiments: projectile of piezoelectric pulse
generator and dropping mass onto the piezoelectric pulse
generator. The force for the projectile of piezoelechic
pulse generator is approximately 20 kN while the force
from the dropping mass is 10 kN. The summary of
material properties used in the experiments is shown
Table 1.
Table 1. Dimension and volume of piezoelectric materials
in experiments.
PZT 5H 0.165
Table 2. Experimental results of piezoelectric pulse
Penerator.
. The summary of the experimental results is in Table 2.
The experiments are categorized according to the source
of applied force. The projectile of piezoelectric pulse
generator is indicated with letter “ P while the dropping
of the mass onto the generator is indicated with letter “ D .
The plot of maximum stack voltage for PZT 5H and APC
855 is shown in Fig. l(a). The theoretical y,wk” , ~ are the
straight lines. It shows that the maximum stack voltage
linearly increases as TAR increases. The experimental
data are obtained from both piezoelectric pulse generator
in a projectile and the dropping mass on piezoelectric
pulse generator with the TAR of 0.13 and 2.04.
Experimentally, the maximum stack voltage at TAR =
0.13 reaches the theoretical value for both method of
applied force. However, at TAR = 2.04,the maximum
stack voltage is much lower than the theoretical value.
This is resulted from a setup of a spark gap that is not
wide enough to accommodate a large stack voltage. In
Fig. l(b), another experiment has been performed on APC
850. The spark gap is setup at a wider distance in order to
reach its maximum stack voltage. The stack voltage from
this experiment ranges between 6.25-14.06 kV, which
almost reaches the theoretical maximum stack current.
DI.D2
D3. D4
0 0.5 1 1.J 2 2.5
TAR(1icm)
(a)
3x’0
- Theomieal Vnack,mar for dropping mass
Figure 1. (a) Plot oftheoretical and experimental
maximum stack voltage for PZT 5H and APC 855.@)
Plot of theoretical and experimental maximum stack
voltage for APC 850.
328
 10
Figure 2. Experimentally measured is,nckusing current I 0' IO2 100 102 104
TAR(I/cm)
viewing resistor (vertical scale of 50 Aidiv; horizontal
scale of 100nsidiv). (a)

- Theoretical P_(F-=
Theoretical P_(T_, h-=
10 kN)
0.13 cm)
0.08
- Thcoreticd for projectile - Theoretical P_(T,,, = I.27 em)
- Theoretical lax+- for dmppinp m m

IO 1o 2 IO0 102 10
Y
0 0.5 I I .5 2 2.5 TAR (licm)
TAR(l/cm) @)
Figure 4. (a) Plot of theoretical and experimental
(a)
maximum generated power in PZT 5H and APC 855 for
piezoelectric pulse generator in projectile. (b) Plot of
theoretical and experimental maximum generated power
in PZT 5H and APC 855 for dropping mass.

The example of the measured stack current is shown in

-004 Fig. 2. The current viewing resistor is used to monitor the
4 stack current. From the figure, the pulse length for one
period is approximately 100 ns. The plot of theoretical
and experimental normalized maximum stack current is

b
0.02
illustrated in Fig. 3 (a)-@). It shows that the normalized
maximum stack current decreases as TAR increases. The
0 DS.DIO experimental data fit quite well into the curve.
Fig. 4 (a>@) shows the theoretical and experimental
0 0.5 I 1.5 2 2.5
TAR (I/cm) data of the maximum peak power of PZT 5H and APC
CO) 855, respectively. With the maximum available force and
Figure 3. (a) Plot of theoretical and experimental limitation of stress, the optimum peak of the generated
normalized maximum stack current PZT 5H and APC power is found at the intersection of P ( F , _ ) and
855. (b) Plot of theoretical and experimental normalized P(Tm_). In Fig. 4(a), the experiment is for the
maximum stack current APC 850. piezoelectric pulse generator projectile which has the

E9
maximum force available from the impact of
approximately 20 kN. In Fig. 4(b), the experiment is for
the dropping mass on to the piezoelectric pulse generator
which has the maximum force of I O kN. With the stress
limitation of 100 MPa, the power limitations due to stress
limitation, P(T,,,), are drawn diagnostically cross the
power limitation due to maximum input force. There are
two P(Tma) l i e s (i.e., for thickness of 0.13 cm and 1.27
cm, respectively).
Experimentally, in both cases of applied forces, the
power generated for the PZT 5H which has the volume of
0.165 cm3 reaches its maximum force limitation (i.e., PI,
P2, DI, and D2). The maximum power ranges between
12.30-28.40 kW. However, for APC 855 which has the
volume of 0.79 cm3, does not perform at its maximum
power limitation. The generated powers (P3, P4, D3, and
D4) are well below the theoretical power limitations. The
generated power from APC 855 is between 2.89-9.93 kW
which is lower than the generated power of PZT 5H. This
is due to the fact that the spark gap is not set wide enough
to obtain the maximum stack voltage.
To improve this, the experiment of dropping mass is
performed on APC 850 which has the same volume as
APC 855. The spark gap is set up at a wider distance to
obtain the maximum stack voltage. The results of the
experiment are shown in Fig. 5. The generated powers of
the piezoelectric pulse generator (i.e., D5-DI0) are close
to the theoretical limitation. The generated power is
between 13.97-113.20 kW, which proves that the volume
of piezoelectric material has the affect on the
maximization of piezoelectric
.. pulse generator.
10
- Theoretical Pmsr(Fmax = 10 kN)
- Theomtical Pmai(Tmax, hpiem = I .27 cm)
16 y Master’s Thesis, University of Missouri-Columbia,
0 modeling, and implementation of a 30 -kW
intersection of these two limitations. With the
combination of these two fidings, it can be concluded
that optimum peak power can be found at a larger volume
of the material (i.e., volume of piezoelectric pulse
generator is a scaling factor of the optimum peak power).
The experiments have been performed to verify the
affect of the material volume to the maximization of
piezoelectric pulse generator. PZT 5H, APC 855, and
APC 850 are used in the experiments. The results show
that the power generated from PZT 5H which has the
volume of 0.165 cm3 is at its maximum point. However
the power generated from APC 855 which has a better
material volume (i.e., 0.79 cm’) than PZT 5H’s does not
reach it maximum power. This result indicates that the
maximum stack voltage is not obtained due to a short
distance spark gap. Thus, the power from APC 855 is
lower than PZT 5H. Another experiment is performed on
APC 850 which has the same volume as APC 855. The
spark gap is setup wider to obtain a maximum stack
voltage. The power generated from APC 850 shows a
good agreement with the theory. APC 850 generates
power ranging between 13.97 -1 13.20 kW which is much
more than the generated power of PZT 5H.
V. REFERENCES
T. G. Engel, W. C. Nunnally, and N. B. VanKirk,
“Compact kinetic-to-electrical energy conversion,”
Proc 1 Ith IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Cod., Baltimore,
MD, 1997, pp. 1503-1507.
T. G. Engel, W. C. Nunnally, and J. E. Becker,
“Research progress on the development of miniature
high power radar sources,” Proc. SPIE, Detection
and Remediation Technologies for Mines and
Minelike Targets IV, vol. 3710, 1999, pp. 124-130.
[31 T. G. Engel, C. Keawboonchuay, and W. C.
Nunnally, “Energy conversion and high power pulse
production using miniature piezoelectric
compressors,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Science., vol 28,
no. 5, pp. 1338-1341.
[41 C. Keawboonchuay, “Exploration of high power
piezoelectric kinetic to electrical e n e r a converter.”
May, 2000.
C. Keawboonchuay, and T. G. Engel, “Design,
piezoelectric pulse generator,” IEEE Trans. Plasma
Science, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 679-686.
C. Keawboonchuay, and T. G. Engel, “Maximum
power generation in a piezoelectric pulse generator,”
IEEE Trans. Plosina Science, vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 123-
128.
Morgan-Matroc, Inc., 225 Theodore Rice Blvd., New
Bedford, MA 02745.
Amencan Piero Ceramics, Inc., Duck Run, P.O. Box 180
Maekeyville, PA 17750.
330