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Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

5th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization (ICMPC 2016)

State of art: Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesters

K.Viswanath Allamraju* K.Srikanth
Mechanical Engineering Department,National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India-506004

Abstract

This paper explains two novel piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters. One is lumped masssingle-axis impact lead ball
piezoelectric vibration energy harvester(LMPVEH) and the other is clamped free beam single-axis impact lead ball piezoelectric
vibration energy harvester(CMPVEH). Both energy harvesters works under the striking mass of lead ball and under the principle
of direct piezoelectric effect and the piezoelectric material is lead zirconate titanate (PZT-5H) .Single-axis impact lead ball novel
piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters are demonstrated along with the literature review in the table format. And also
explained the effect of temperature in the performance of energy harvesters. The output voltage for LMPVEH is 25 Volts and the
CMPVEH is 98 V.

©2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Conference Committee Members of 5th International Conference of Materials
Processing and Characterization (ICMPC 2016).

Keywords:LMPVEH; CMPVEH; PZT-5H;Harvester;

1.Introduction
In a simple way, vibration energy harvesting can be defined as generation of electricity by using vibration . There
are three main types of vibration based energy harvesters: piezoelectric, electrostatic and electromagnetic.
Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters are reported to have a higher energy density for practical applications[23].
There are two types of piezoelectric effects. One is direct and the other one converse. when the electrical energy is
generated by the application of mechanical stress then it is called the direct piezoelectric effect .Mechanical
deformation takes place in the material by the application of voltage, then it is called as converse piezoelectric
effect.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +919492060340;

E-mail address: akvn87@gmail.com

2214-7853©2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Conference Committee Members of 5th International Conference of Materials Processing and
Characterization (ICMPC 2016).
1092 K.Viswanath Allamraju et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098

Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting process uses the direct piezoelectric effect, which is described by the
constitutive equation.

D = dT + εE (1)
Where D is the electrical displacement, d is the piezoelectric stress coefficient, T is the applied stress, ε is the
permittivity and E is the electric field.

Fig. 1. Number of publications on piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic energy harvesters in Web of Science between years 2003 and
2013[51]

Lot of research work is being done in the field of vibration based energy harvesters in the last decade , especially in
piezoelectric based because of its higher energy density for practical applications. From 2003 to 2013, the
publication of papers in number on piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic energy harvesters indexed in
Web of Science is shown in figure 1. So far researchers are developed the devices to generate power such a way
that the power can be useful for micro power devices . Single-axis impact lead ball novel piezoelectric vibration
energy harvesters are developed for optimizing the output power and the inspiration for designing the Single-axis
impact lead ball novel piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters in the present paper is hard work of our ancestors of
vibration energy harvesting.

2. Literature review

Table 1 describes the contributions of researchers in the field of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters. Authors
have explained literature review in table form such a way that the Single-axis impact lead ball novel piezoelectric
vibration energy harvesters can be explained more ornately in the headline of proposed Single-axis impact lead ball
novel piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters.
 K.Viswanath Allamraju et al / / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098 1093

Table.1 Past researchers contribution in vibration based energy harvesting

Characteristics
Author Device Modelling
Frequency and
Power
Acceleration

Williams and Yates[26] Second order

Electromagnetic 10-15
Shearwood and Yates [27] 4.4 KHz, 380 m/s2 linear differential
micro-generator μW/cm3
Williams et. al [28-29] equation model

Amirtharajah [30],
Chandrakasan et al [31],
Electromagnetic 2.5
Meninger et al [32], 2 Hz _
converter μW/cm3
Amirtharajah et al [33],
Meninger et al[34]

Lumped mass
Kasyap et. al [11] _ _
parameter
Priya. S [35] 7.5 mW 65 Hz Beam theory
75 Electrical
Roundy et. Al [6,18-19] 120 Hz
μW/cm3 equivalent model
White et. al [36]
PZT cantilever 2 μW 80.1 Hz FEA model
Jones et. al. [37-38]
Electrical
PZT _
Nakamura et. al [7] PZT plate equivalent
patch
model
PZT _
PZT
Tanaka et. al [39] cantilever 50 Hz
windmill
PZT
Equivalent
Ayers et. al [41] PZT plate cantilever 1 KN, 4Hz
circuit model

Equivalent
Platt et. al [42] PZT stack 1.1 mW 440 N, < 20 Hz
circuit model

40 μW 20 Hz, 200 μm _
Li et. al. [43-44] MEMS
Shu et. al. [46-47] PZTcantilever Conversion
efficiency
Ferrari et. al. [45] Same as above 0.25μW 41 Hz, 9 m/s 2 _
PZT plate 120 mW _ _
Mohammadi et. al [40]
Platt et. al [42] PZT stack 1.1 mW < 20 Hz Equivalent circuit
model

Figure 2 shows the Roundy's energy harvester which is cantilever model and estimates a power density range from
0.5 to 100mW/cm3 for vibrations in the range of 1–10 m/s2 at 50–350 Hz.
1094 K.Viswanath Allamraju et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098

𝑒𝜌 𝐴2
𝑝=
4 𝜔
Where p is the output power, ρ is the density of PZT, e is the effectiveness, A is the area of cross section and ω is
the frequency.

Fig.2. S. Roundy’s vibration energy harvester [6,18-19]

3. Proposed novel piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters

Two types of Single-axis impact lead ball novel piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters are developed. one is
lumped mass parameter based energy harvester. Another one is the cantilever based impact mass vibration energy
harvesters. For both the vibration energy harvesters PZT-5H transducers are used. And the impact mass is the lead
ball of 9 grams.

Fig.3. Lumped mass piezoelectric vibration energy harvester(LMPVEH)

LMPVEH is designed with two supported plates made of Iron (50 x50 x2 mm) ,four bolts(diameter50 x 5 mm) , two unimorph
PZT -5H (32 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness) transducers and between those two transducers ,a cylinder inserted for guiding
the striking lead mass. The entire assembly of LMPVEH is sown in figures 3& 4.
 K.Viswanath Allamraju et al / / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098 1095

Fig.4. Experimental setup of LMPVEH

Fig.5. Output voltage of LMPVEH at different temperatures

Figure 5 describes that when the PZT-5H circular transducers are heated in the electric oven at 200C,600C and
1000C for a period of one hour and tested on 20g exciter under sinusoidal excitation. At 200C , V peak -peak is 25 ,
At 1000C , V peak -peak is 18 , and at 600C , V peak -peak is 21, thus temperature effects the performance of PZT-
5H transducers.
1096 K.Viswanath Allamraju et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098

3.2 . Clamped free beam single-axis impact lead ball piezoelectric vibration energy harvester(CMPVEH)

Fig.6. Schematic diagram of CMPVEH with experimental setup

Fig.7. Voltage Vs Time graph of CMPVEH at different frequencies

The length of beam is 300 mm .Figures 6 & 7 demonstrates the schematic diagram of CMPVEH and the output
voltages at different operated frequencies in the experimentation.Atfrequencies of <20 Hz, 3.543kHz, 82.231
Hz,73.58 Hz, 91.43 Hz and 79.43 Hz and the maximumrecorded voltage is 98 V.

4. Conclusions
State of art of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters are explained briefly. The literature review is covered in
table 1 in a understandable for explaining the Single-axis impact lead ball novel piezoelectric vibration energy
 K.Viswanath Allamraju et al / / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 1091–1098 1097

harvesters elaborately. The output of LMPVEH is 25 volts and for CMPVEH output voltage is 98 V. And also
explained the effect of heat for the performance of LMPVEH.

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