Piezoelectric power generation for civil infrastructure systems

A. Erturk* and D. J. Inman

Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

ABSTRACT
Civil infrastructure systems (CIS) employ various small electronic components ranging from temperature and humidity
sensors used in buildings to acoustics emission sensors used for damage detection in bridges. Other than solar energy
that has already found several applications in CIS; moving loads, surface strain fluctuations, and wind energy available
in the vicinity of CIS constitute important sources of energy that can be converted into electricity. This paper focuses on
low power generation from these energy sources using piezoelectric transduction. Moving loads caused by travelling
vehicles can be used for exciting piezoceramics located on the road. Structural vibrations resulting from various sources
such as support motions and interaction of CIS with the surrounding fluid may yield local surface strain fluctuations.
Wind energy is available not only due to regular atmospheric flow but also due to the motion of vehicles travelling at
relatively high speeds. This paper investigates and formulates (1) the electromechanical moving load problem for slender
bridges with a piezoelectric cantilever and with embedded piezoceramics, (2) the problem of piezoelectric power
generation from surface strain fluctuations using a piezoceramic patch, and (3) piezoelectric energy harvesting from
wind excitation through aeroelastic flutter.

Keywords: Civil infrastructure systems, piezoelectricity, aeroelasticity, energy harvesting, wind energy

1. INTRODUCTION
Vibration-based energy harvesting has received growing attention over the last decade due to the reduced power
requirements of small electronic components, such as the wireless sensor networks used in passive and active monitoring
applications [1,2]. The maintenance costs for periodic battery replacement as well as the resulting chemical waste of
conventional batteries can be reduced dramatically if such wireless electronic components can be powered by the
vibrational energy available in their environment.
Among the basic transduction mechanisms that can be used for vibration-to-electric energy conversion
(piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic transductions), piezoelectric transduction has been most heavily
investigated [1,2] mainly due to the ease of application and large power densities of piezoelectric materials. In the last
few years, researchers have investigated various problems involving modeling [3,4] and applications [1,2] of
piezoelectric energy harvesters.
Civil infrastructure systems (CIS) constitute unique application platforms for energy harvesting due to the
common use of battery-powered wireless electronic components [5], such as the acoustic emission sensors [6] used for
structural health prognosis in bridges. Although CIS employ wireless electronic components for some of the most critical
engineering applications, fundamental civil engineering problems have not been covered in the existing literature of
vibration-based energy harvesting. The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to formulating such problems by
focusing on piezoelectric energy harvesting. The fundamental problems summarized in this paper are the moving load
excitation of slender bridges and the surface strain fluctuations of large structures for piezoelectric power generation [7].
Piezoelectric energy harvesting from aeroelastic vibrations is also discussed for an aeroelastic section with
electromechanical coupling.

2. BASE EXCITATION OF BIMORPH PIEZOELECTRIC CANTILEVERS

This section presents a brief review of the cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester model proposed by Erturk and
Inman [3]. The governing electromechanical equations are given for a generalized base acceleration input, which are

*
erturk@vt.edu; phone: 1 540 231-0436; fax: 1 540 231-2903

Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure,

and Homeland Security 2011, edited by H. Felix Wu, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7983, 798326 · © 2011 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/11/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.880463

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 then solved for the steady-state electromechanical response for harmonic base acceleration. Following the harmonic
excitation case, the governing equations are expressed in the state-space form for transient base acceleration inputs
(which is the typical case in the moving load problem).

2.1. Governing electromechanical equations

The cantilevered energy harvester configurations shown in Fig. 1 are geometrically uniform symmetric bimorphs (made
of two identical piezoceramic layers bracketing an elastic substructure layer) and they are excited under base vibration. A
tip mass (proof mass) is attached rigidly at the free end to tune the natural frequencies (usually the focus is placed on the
fundamental natural frequency). The perfectly conductive electrodes of negligible thickness fully cover the transverse
faces of the piezoceramic layers and the wiring cases shown in Figs. 1a and 1b represent the series and parallel
connections of the electrical outputs (to the external resistive load), respectively. The problem of interest in vibration-
based energy harvesting is to relate the voltage output across the electrical load to the base acceleration input.

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. Cantilevered bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester configurations under base excitation: (a) series connection
and (b) parallel connection.

The electromechanically coupled dynamics of a thin bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester beam under base
excitation are governed by [3]
∂ wrel ( x , t ) ∂ wrel ( x , t ) ∂wrel ( x , t ) ∂ wrel ( x , t ) ⎡ dδ ( x) − dδ ( x − L) ⎤ =
4 5 2

D + cs + cm +m − ϑ v (t )
∂x
4
∂x ∂t
4
∂t ∂t
2 ⎢⎣ dx dx ⎥⎦ (1)
− [ m + M t δ ( x − L ) ] a (t )
∂ wrel ( x, t )
L 3
dv (t ) v (t )
+ +ϑ ∫ dx = 0
eq
Cp (2)
∂x ∂t
2
dt Rl 0

where a (t ) is the translational base acceleration in the transverse direction, wrel ( x , t ) is the vibration response
(transverse displacement of the neutral axis relative to the moving base at position x and time t), v(t ) is the voltage
response (across the external resistive load Rl ) , D is the bending stiffness of the beam, m is the mass per unit length of
the beam, cm is the external (air) damping coefficient (mass-proportional damping), cs is the internal (strain rate or
eq
Kelvin-Voigt) damping coefficient of the composite structure (stiffness-proportional damping), M t is the tip mass, C p
is the equivalent capacitance of the piezoceramic layers, ϑ is the electromechanical coupling term in the physical
coordinates, and δ ( x) is the Dirac delta function. The electromechanical coupling term is ϑ = e31bhpc if the layers are
connected in series whereas it is ϑ = 2 e31bh pc if the layers are connected in parallel (where e31 is the plane-stress
piezoelectric stress constant, b is the width of the layers and h pc is the distance from the neutral axis to the center of each
piezoceramic layer: hpc = ( h p + hs ) / 2 where h p is the thickness of each piezoceramic layer and hs is the thickness of
the substructure layer).

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 2.2. Steady-state response to harmonic base acceleration
Based on the standard modal analysis procedure (assuming the system to be a normal-mode system by considering the
corresponding undamped system), the vibration response is expressed as a series expansion of the eigenfunctions of the
undamped system:
∞

wrel ( x, t ) = ∑ φ ( x)η (t ) r r
(3)
r =1

where φr ( x ) is the mass normalized eigenfunction and η r (t ) is the modal coordinate for the rth vibration mode.
If the base acceleration is harmonic of the form a (t ) = A0 e jω t (where A0 is the base acceleration amplitude, ω
is the excitation frequency and j is the unit imaginary number), the steady-state analytical solution for the voltage – to –
base acceleration FRF is obtained from Eqs. (1) and (2) and the orthogonality conditions of the eigenfunctions [3] as
∞
− jωθ%rσ r
v (t )
∑ω 2
− ω + j 2ζ r ω r ω
2
r =1
α (ω ) = = r
(4)
jωθ%
jω t ∞ 2
A0 e 1
+ jω C p +
eq
∑ r

r =1 ω r − ω + j 2ζ r ω r ω
2 2
Rl
and the steady-state vibration response – to – base acceleration FRF is
⎡⎛ ∞
jωθ% σ ⎞ ⎤
wrel ( x, t ) ∞ ⎢⎜ ∑ ω 2 − ω 2 + j 2ζ ω ω r r
⎟ φr ( x ) ⎥
= ∑ σ r − θr
⎢ ⎜ ⎟ 2 ⎥
r =1
β (ω , x ) = % r r r
(5)
r =1 ⎢⎜ jωθ%r ⎟ ωr − ω + j 2ζ r ωr ω ⎥
jω t 2 2
A0 e 1 ∞

⎢⎣⎝⎜ + jω C
eq
+ ∑ ⎟ ⎥⎦
r =1 ω r − ω + j 2ζ r ω r ω
p
⎠
2 2
Rl
where ζ r is the modal mechanical damping ratio, θ%r is the modal electromechanical coupling ( θ%r and C p are read from
eq

Table 1 depending on the series or parallel connection of the piezoceramic layers) and σ r is a modal forcing term
expressed as
L
σ r = −m ∫ φr ( x)dx − M tφr ( L) (6)
0

In Table 1, for a beam-like thin cantilever, the plane-stress piezoelectric stress constant e31 can be given in
terms of the more commonly used piezoelectric strain constant d31 as e31 = d31 / s11E (where s11E is the elastic compliance
at constant electric field) and the plane-stress permittivity constant at constant strain is ε 33S = ε 33
T
− d 312 / s11E (where ε 33
T
is
the permittivity component at constant stress). Note that, in Fig. 1, the directions 1 and 3 are coincident with the
directions x and z, respectively. As discussed by Erturk and Inman [3], Eqs. (4) and (5) can be simplified dramatically for
excitations close to a natural frequency, i.e. ω ≈ ωr .

Table 1. Modal electromechanical coupling and equivalent capacitance of a bimorph energy harvester for the series and
the parallel connections of the piezocermaic layers.

Series connection Parallel connection

dφr ( x ) dφr ( x )
θ%r e31bh pc 2 e31bh pc
dx x=L dx x=L

ε 33 bL 2ε 33 bL
S S
eq
Cp
2hp hp

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 2.3. Response to generalized base acceleration
The state-space (or first-order) form of the governing electromechanical equations can be given in the model coordinates
as
⎧ ⎫
⎧ u& r(1) ⎫ ⎪ ur
(2)
⎪
⎪ (2) ⎪ ⎪ ⎪
⎨u& r ⎬ = ⎨ −2ζ r ω r u r − ω r u r + θ%r u + σ r a (t ) ⎬ (7)
(2) 2 (1) ( 3)

⎪ u& ( 3) ⎪ ⎪ ∞ ⎪
⎩ ⎭ ⎪ −u ( 3) / R C eq − ∑ θ% u ( 2 ) / C eq ⎪
⎩ ⎭
l p r r p
r =1

where the over-dot represents differentiation with respect to time while the state variables are
dηr (t )
u r ( t ) = η r ( t ) , u r (t ) =
(2)
(1)
, u ( 3 ) (t ) = v (t ) (8)
dt
Here, the energy harvester beam has infinitely many vibration modes (i.e. r = 1, 2, ... ). Depending on the frequency
content of the base acceleration input and the modal frequencies of the harvester beam, it is sufficient to consider a few
vibration modes (say N modes), hence the dimension of the first-order representation reduces to 2 N + 1 .
If the initial displacement and velocity distributions of the harvester beam are denoted by κ ( x) and μ ( x) ,
respectively, and the initial voltage across the load is v0 , one can express

⎡ d κ ( x ) I d φr ( x ) ⎤
L

∫
ur (0) = η r (0) = κ ( x ) mφr ( x )dx + κ ( L ) M tφr ( L ) +
(1)
(9)
⎢⎣ dx t dx ⎥⎦ x = L
0

dη r (t ) ⎡ d μ ( x ) I d φr ( x ) ⎤
L

ur (0) = ∫
= μ ( x ) mφr ( x )dx + μ ( L ) M tφr ( L ) +
(2)
(10)
dt t =0
⎢⎣ dx t dx ⎥⎦ x = L
0

u (0) = v (0) = v0
( 3)
(11)
Having the state-space form of the equations and the initial conditions of the state variables, an appropriate ordinary
differential equation solver can be employed to solve for the response to arbitrary acceleration inputs.

3. MOVING LOAD EXCITATION

Piezoelectric power generation from moving load excitation is formulated for two scenarios by focusing on a slender
bridge configuration (for possible applications to high-span highway bridges). The problems considered in the following
are (1) energy harvesting from the vibrations of a piezoelectric cantilever located at an arbitrary point on the bridge and
(2) energy harvesting using a thin piezoceramic patch covering an arbitrary region on the bridge [7].

3.1. Cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester located on a slender bridge

The uniform slender bridge shown in Fig. 2 is under the excitation of a transversely applied constant-amplitude load P
(representing a vehicle) moving at a constant speed v . The equation of motion governing the vibrations of the bridge is
∂ w( x , t) ∂ w( x , t) ∂w ( x , t ) ∂ w( x , t)
4 5 2

D + cs + cm= Pδ ( x − vt ) +m (12)
∂x ∂ x ∂t ∂t ∂t
4 4 2

where w ( x , t ) is the vibration response of the bridge (transverse displacement of the neutral axis relative to the moving
base at position x and time t), D is the bending stiffness, m is the mass per length, cs and cm represent the stiffness
proportional and mass proportional damping components, respectively, and δ ( x ) is the Dirac delta function. The
reference frame of the cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester located at x = Lh is the xz-frame (as in Fig. 1) while
the reference frame of the bridge is the xz -frame as shown in Fig. 2 (therefore x is the axial position on the harvester
beam whereas x is the axial position on the bridge). The governing electromechanical equations of the cantilevered
bimorph energy harvester located on the bridge are given by Eqs. (1) and (2). The basic assumption in the following
derivation is that the effect of the small harvester beam and its dynamics on the bridge is negligible. The energy
harvester is excited due to the moving load and electrical power is generated but the bridge dynamics is not affected;

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 therefore, no electrical term exists in Eq. (12). Obviously the structural dynamics of the energy harvester beam can be
affected by piezoelectric power generation, which is taken into account in Eqs. (1) and (2).

Fig. 2. Schematic of the moving load problem for a slender bridge with a cantilevered bimorph energy harvester (the size
of the cantilever is exaggerated).

The systematic approach is therefore to solve for the vibration response of the bridge to use it as the excitation
term in the governing equations of the energy harvester. The base acceleration of the energy harvester in Eq. (7) is
simply
∂ w( x , t )
2

a (t ) = (13)
∂t
2
x = Lh

One is then after the solution of w ( x , t ) for 0 ≤ t ≤ T (where T = L / v is the time of traverse of the moving load over
b

the bridge) so that it can be used in the electromechanical equations of the energy harvester. The analytical treatment of
the undamped version of Eq. (12) can be found in many texts and articles [8,9]. The damped problem results in rather
lengthy expressions but the analytical modal analysis procedure is applicable since the system is assumed to be
proportionally damped [7].
The vibratory response of the slender bridge can be expressed as
∞

w ( x , t ) = ∑ φr ( x )η r (t ) (14)
r =1

where φ r ( x ) is the mass normalized eigenfunction and η r (t ) is the modal coordinate for the rth vibration mode of the
bridge. The mass normalized eigenfunction for simple end conditions is
2 ⎛ rπ x ⎞
φr ( x ) = sin ⎜ ⎟ (15)
mLb ⎝ Lb ⎠
For zero initial conditions, the modal coordinate of the slender bridge can be expressed as [7]
⎧ ⎛ rπ vt ⎞ −ξ ω t ⎡ ⎛ rπ v ⎞ ⎤⎫
η r (t ) = Fr ⎨ sin ⎜ − ϕr ⎟ + e ⎢ sin ϕ r cos ω r t + ⎜ ξ r sin ϕ r −
r r
cos ϕ r ⎟ sin ω r t ⎥ ⎬ (16)
⎩ ⎝ Lb ⎠ ⎣ ⎝ ω r Lb ⎠ ⎦⎭
The vibration response is then†
∞
⎧ ⎛ rπ vt ⎞ ⎡ ⎛ rπ v ⎞ ⎤⎫
w ( x , t ) = ∑ φr ( x ) Fr ⎨sin ⎜
− ξ r ωr t
− ϕr ⎟ + e ⎢sin ϕr cos ωr t + ⎜ ξ r sin ϕr − ω L cos ϕr ⎟ sin ωr t ⎥ ⎬ (17)
r =1 ⎩ ⎝ Lb ⎠ ⎣ ⎝ r b ⎠ ⎦⎭
Therefore, the acceleration input to the cantilevered energy harvester located at x = Lh is
∞
d ⎧ ⎛ rπ vt
2
⎞ −ξ ω t ⎡ ⎛ rπ v ⎞ ⎤⎫
a (t ) = ∑ φr ( Lh ) Fr ⎨sin ⎜
dt ⎩ ⎝ Lb
− ϕr ⎟ + e ⎢ sin ϕ r cos ωr t + ⎜ ξ r sin ϕ r −
r r

ωr Lb
cos ϕ r ⎟ sin ωr t ⎥ ⎬ (18)
⎠ ⎣ ⎝ ⎠ ⎦⎭
2
r =1

The transverse acceleration given by Eq. (18) is the excitation input to the state-space representation of the
energy harvester equations given by Eq. (7). Since the solution of the bridge response is valid for 0 ≤ t ≤ T (the traverse

†
In his book on the subject of moving load excitation of structures, Fryba [8] studies special cases regarding the speed of the load and the damping in
the structure following his solution based on the Laplace-Carson integral transformation. The response expression is left in its general form in this
paper and the reader is referred to Fryba [8] for an extensive discussion of special cases.

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 duration), the response of the cantilevered energy harvester obtained by the numerical solution of Eq. (7) is also valid for
0≤t≤T .

3.2. Thin piezoceramic patch covering a region on a slender bridge

An alternative approach is presented in this section to harvest piezoelectric energy without using the cantilevered
configuration. The slender bridge shown in Fig. 3 has a piezoceramic patch covering the region Lh1 ≤ x ≤ Lh 2 for
harvesting energy from the vibrations induced by the moving load. The perfectly conductive electrodes covering the
transverse faces of the patch are connected to an external resistive load. For the typical dimensions of commercially
available piezoceramics, the patch length is much smaller than the length of the bridge, i.e. ( Lh 2 − Lh1 )  Lb . However,
several of such patches can be combined to generate usable electrical power from the dynamic strain induced on the
surface by the moving load. The aim is to relate the dynamic surface strain of the bridge to the electrical output of the
piezoceramic across a given resistive electrical load. The governing dynamic equation of the slender bridge and its
vibration response are given by Eqs. (12) and (17), respectively, since it is reasonable to assume that the dynamics of the
bridge are not affected by piezoelectric power generation.

Fig. 3. Schematic of the moving load problem for a slender bridge with a thin piezoceramic patch covering a region (the
size of the patch is exaggerated).

Since the admittance of the external circuit with a resistor is 1 / Rl , the integral form of Gauss’s law [3,7] leads
to
⎛d ⎞ v (t )
⎜ ∫
dt ⎝ A
D ⋅ ndA ⎟ =
⎠ Rl
(19)

where v(t ) is the voltage across the resistive load, D is the vector of electric displacement components, n is the unit
outward normal and the integration is performed over the electrode area A of the piezoceramic patch.
After expressing the mechanical strain in the piezoceramic in terms of the curvature of the bridge and the
electric field in terms of the voltage across the load, the governing circuit equation is obtained from Eq. (19) as
Lh 2
∂ w( x , t )
3
dv (t ) v (t )
Cp
dt
+
Rl
= − e31 hpc bp ∫ ∂x ∂t
2
dx (20)
Lh 1

where bp is the width of the piezoceramic (equal to the width of the electrodes), h pc is the distance from the neutral axis
of the bridge to the center of the piezoceramic patch, e31 is the effective (plane-stress) piezoelectric stress constant and
C p is the capacitance of the piezoceramic patch ( C p = ε 33 bp ( Lh 2 − Lh1 ) / hp where h p is the thickness of the
S

piezoceramic).
Substituting Eq. (14) into Eq. (20) gives
dv (t ) v (t ) ∞
dη r (t )
+ = ∑ψ r (21)
dt τ r =1 dt
Here, η r (t ) is given by Eq. (16) and the modal electromechanical coupling is

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 x = Lh 2
d φr ( x ) e31 hpc bp dφr ( x )
Lh 2
e31hpc bp 2

ψr = −
Cp
∫ dx
2
dx = −
Cp dx x = Lh 1
(22)
Lh 1

where τ is the time constant of the circuit: τ = Rl C p .

t /τ
One can solve Eq. (21) using the integrating factor e to obtain
∞
dη (t )
∫ ∑
ψ r r dt
− t /τ t /τ
v (t ) = e e (23)
r =1 dt
where the initial voltage is assumed to be zero and the modal velocity response of the bridge is
dη r ( t ) d ⎧ ⎛ rπ vt ⎞ −ξ ω t ⎡ ⎛ rπ v ⎞ ⎤⎫
= Fr ⎨sin ⎜ − ϕr ⎟+e
r r

⎢ sin ϕ r cos ω r t + ⎜ ξ r sin ϕ r − ω L cos ϕ r ⎟ sin ω r t ⎥ ⎬ (24)

dt dt ⎩ ⎝ Lb ⎠ ⎣ ⎝ r b ⎠ ⎦⎭
For the external resistive load of Rl , the electrical power output is
2
⎡e−t /τ et /τ ∞ ψ dηr (t ) dt ⎤
1
P(t ) =
Rl ⎢⎣
∫ ∑ r =1
r
dt ⎥⎦ (25)

which is valid for 0 ≤ t ≤ T .

4. LOCAL STRAIN FLUCTUATIONS

Figure 4 shows a rectangular thin piezoceramic patch under the excitation of two-dimensional strain fluctuations in
perpendicular directions. The problem considered in this section is a local and two-dimensional way of treating the
problem of Section 3.2. The input in the following derivation is the considered as the dynamic strain components in two
perpendicular directions rather than the original source of the excitation (e.g. moving load, fluid-structure interaction,
etc). Hence the generalized derivation covered here can be used for estimating the piezoelectric power output from the
surface strain energy of various engineering structures.

Fig. 4. Rectangular thin piezoceramic patch attached onto a large structure for power generation from two-dimensional
surface strain fluctuations.

4.1. Power output to generalized strain fluctuations

In Fig. 4, the dynamic loading condition (not shown) and the orientation of the rectangular thin piezoceramic patch are
such that the patch is exposed to strain fluctuations in two perpendicular directions (such as the principal strain directions
[10]). The perfectly conductive electrodes covering the upper and the lower faces of the piezoceramic patch are
connected to a resistive electrical load. As in the moving load problem of Section 3, it is assumed that the effect of
piezoelectric power generation on the dynamics of the large structure is negligible. Moreover, the piezoceramic patch is
much thinner than the host structure so that the average strain distribution in the patch is similar to the strain distribution
on the covered surface of the structure.
For the thin rectangular piezoceramic undergoing strain fluctuations in the 1- and 2-directions (Fig. 4), the
nonzero electric displacement component is expressed as
D3 = e31 S1 + e32 S 2 + ε 33 E3
S
(26)

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 where S1 and S 2 are the strain components,‡ E3 is the electric field component while the plane-stress piezoelectric
stress constants and the permittivity component for a thin piezoceramic plate are obtained by neglecting the transverse
shear and thickness stress components as
e31 = e32 = d 31 / ( s11 + s12 ) , ε 33 = ε 33 − 2 d 31 / ( s11 + s12 )
E E S T 2 E E
(27)
E E
Here, d 31 is the piezoelectric strain constant, s11 and s12 are the elastic compliance components at constant electric field
and ε 33T is the permittivity component at constant stress. Hence, Eq. (26) becomes
D3 = e31 ( S1 + S 2 ) + ε 33 E3
S
(28)
If the voltage across the resistive load Rl is denoted by v(t ) , Eq. (19) leads to
dv (t ) v (t ) e31 ∂
dt
+
τ
=
Cp
∫ ∂t [ S ( x, y , t ) + S ( x, y , t ) ] dA
1 2
(29)
A

where τ = Rl C p is the time constant and C p = ε 33 A / hp is the capacitance of the piezoceramic patch (where h p is its
S

thickness and A is the electrode area).

If the strain field in each direction of the piezoceramic patch is homogenous (so that S1 (t ) and S 2 (t ) are space-
independent), the right hand side of Eq. (29) is simplified to give
dv (t ) v (t ) e31 A d
+ = [ S1 ( t ) + S 2 ( t ) ] (30)
dt τ C p dt
The voltage response is then
e31 A d
v (t ) = e
− t /τ
∫e
t /τ
[ S (t ) + S
1 2
(t ) ] dt (31)
Cp dt
and the power output is
2
1 ⎧ e31 A d ⎫
∫ e dt [ S1 (t ) + S 2 (t )] dt ⎬
− t /τ t /τ
P (t ) = ⎨ e (32)
Rl ⎩ C p ⎭

4.2. Steady-state power output to harmonic strain fluctuations

For the case where the dynamic strain components are harmonic in time at the same frequency:
S (t ) = S% e , S (t ) = S% e
jω t jω t
1 1 2 2
(33)
where S%1 and S% 2 are the strain values (they can be positive or negative valued), ω is the excitation frequency and j is
the unit imaginary number.
Hence the steady-state power amplitude is
ω e31 A ( S%1 + S%2 ) Rl
2 2 2 2

P= (34)
1 + ω Rl C p
2 2 2

Therefore, the optimal electrical load and the maximum power output are
ω e31 A ( S%1 + S%2 )
2 2 2
∂P 1
= 0 → Rl = , Pmax = P R = R =
opt
opt (35)
∂Rl opt
Rl = Rl
ωC p l l
2C p

‡
The derivations given here are for piezoceramics with conventional electrodes. Fiber-based orthotropic piezoceramics with interdigitated electrodes
do not give any electrical output to strain fluctuations in the direction that is orthogonal to the direction of fibers.

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 5. AEROELASTIC VIBRATIONS
Electricity generation from aeroelastic vibrations has received growing attention in the past couple of years [11-15]. In
addition to possible applications to aircraft structures, the goal is to develop scalable and easy-to-fabricate alternatives to
conventional windmill configurations for low-power generation. In this section, one of the basic configurations [12] is
reviewed with the governing piezoaeroelastic equations in order to describe the fundamental problem of generating
electricity from wind-induced vibrations.
Consider the piezoaeroelastic section under airflow excitation shown in Fig. 5. After introducing piezoelectric
coupling to the plunge degree of freedom (DOF) in addition to two structural damping coefficients and considering a
resistive load in the electrical domain, the lumped-parameter aeroelastic equations [16] are modified to obtain the
following piezoaeroelastic equations [12]:
( m + m ) h&& + mx bα&& + d h& + k h − θ v / l = − L
f α h h
(36)

mxα bh&& + I pα&& + d α α& + kα α = M (37)

C p v& + v / Rl + θ h& = 0
eq
(38)
where h is the plunge displacement (translation), α is the pitch displacement (rotation), m is the airfoil mass per
length (in the span direction), m f accounts for the fixture mass per length in the experiments connecting the airfoil to the
plunge springs ( m f = 0 for the ideal representation given in Fig. 5), I p is the moment of inertia per length about the
reference point P where h is measured, b is the semi-chord length, l is the span length (into the page), xα is the
dimensionless chord-wise offset of the reference point from the centroid (point C), kh is the stiffness per length in the
plunge DOF, kα is the stiffness per length in the pitch DOF, L is the aerodynamic lift per length, M is the
aerodynamic pitching moment per length, d h and dα , respectively, are the structural damping coefficients in the plunge
eq
DOF and the pitch DOF, Rl is the load resistance, v is the voltage across the resistive load, C p is the equivalent
capacitance of the piezoceramic layers, θ is the electromechanical coupling term and an over-dot represents
differentiation with respect to time [12].

Fig. 5. Schematic of a piezoaeroelastic section under uniform airflow.

In the absence of nonlinearities that would cause subcritical bifurcations [17], the cut-in speed of an aeroelastic
energy harvester is the linear flutter speed [12]. Airflow speeds higher than the linear flutter speed typically result in
nonlinear limit-cycle oscillations (LCO). Classic flutter analysis methods (e.g. the k method, the p-k method, etc. [16])
can be employed for the analysis of the aeroelastic problem. Time-domain solutions [13] can be used to predict the
transient electrical response for airflow speeds below the linear flutter speed. On the other hand, harmonic solution is
sufficient for describing the piezoaeroelastic response at the flutter boundary [12]. A recent study [15] theoretically and
experimentally demonstrates the reduction of the cut-in speed by introducing a free play to create nonlinearities in a
piezoaeroelastic section. Combining cubic nonlinearity (hardening stiffness) with the free play nonlinearity makes the
resulting LCO amplitude acceptable over a wide range of airflow speeds [15].

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 6. SUMMARY
Civil infrastructure systems provide critical application platforms for vibration-based energy harvesting. The state-of-
the-art wireless and battery-powered sensor networks used for structural health monitoring can be made self-powered is
sufficient vibrational energy is available in their environment. Piezoelectric transduction has been most heavily
researched in the last few years due to the ease of application and large power densities of piezoelectric materials. This
paper has introduced analytical derivations combining some of the fundamental civil engineering problems with the
problem of piezoelectric energy harvesting. Moving load excitation of slender bridges and the surface strain fluctuations
of large structures have been considered. Wind energy harvesting using an aeroelastic section with piezoelectric coupling
has also been discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Technology Innovation Program, Cooperative Agreement Number 70NANB9H9007 “Self-Powered Wireless Sensor
Network for Structural Health Prognosis.”

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