A unimorph piezoelectric cantilever generator with an interdigitated electrode (IDE) was developed for vibration energy harvester applications driven in the longitudinal mode. Hard lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic with a high Qm of 1,280 was used as the piezoelectric active material. Ten PZT sheets produced by tape casting were laminated and co-fired with an Ag/Pd IDE at 1,050℃ for 2 h. The approximately 280 μm-thick co-fired PZT laminate with the IDE was attached to a stainless steel substrate with an adhesive epoxy for the fabrication of an IDE unimorph cantilever. Its energy harvesting characteristics were evaluated: an output power of 1.1 μW at 120 Hz across the resistive load of 700 k□ was obtained, corresponding to a normalized power factor of 4.1 μW/(G2·cm3).
Recently, energy harvesting technology is increasing due to the fossil fuel shortages. To compensate problem of low generating power than other energy harvesters, many researchers have studied about piezoelectric harvester for obtaining high output. In this paper, four kinds of unimorph based piezoelectric harvesters were proposed and its generating characteristics were studied. Each of the piezoelectric harvesters has three, four, and six unimorph arms, respectively, and the arms are symmetrically arranged from one central point. The centrosymmetric structure of the harvesters guarantees more stable and multiplied generation than a cantilever-type harvester since the arms of the harvester resonate at same frequency. Resonance frequency, output voltage, displacement, and stress characteristics of the generator were analyzed by using a FEM (finite element method) program. Harvesters were fabricated on the basis of analysis results. Experimental results were compared with simulated results.
The haptic actuator needs to downsize in the mobile devices continuatively. In this work, the hinge lever mechanism was used in order to prevent lowering the vibration performances of the downsized actuator. The vibration performances of actuator with and without hinge-lever mechanism were simulated by the finite element method analysis. It is concluded that the hinge-lever mechanism may be a proper measure to prevent lowering the vibration performances in the downsized piezoelectric actuator.
We fabricated piezoelectric unimorph cantilever generators (UCG) using Pb(Zr0.54Ti0.46)O3 + 0.2 wt% Cr2O3 + 1.0 wt% Nb2O5 (PZCN) piezoelectric thick films, which were produced by a tape casting method. The PZCN thick films were tailored with same width and thickness but different lengths from 7.7 to 57.7 mm in order to evaluate optimized UCG for energy harvesting device applications. When the length of PZCN film was increased, the resonance frequency of UCG was slightly increased from 7 Hz to 8 Hz, which could be due to enlarged area of the highly stiff piezo-ceramic film. However, the output power was proportionally increased with the length of PZCT film and it reached 4.68 mW (1.221 mW/cm3) when the film`s length was 57.7 mm under 25 g of tip mass at 8 Hz, which is sufficient for micro-scale device applications.
A cantilever-type piezoelectric generator has advantages of simple structure, ease of fabrication and large displacement by transverse vibration of a beam. It is easy to control the natural frequency, and also possible to increase the output power by changing the length, width, and thickness of the generator. In particular, the length increases, the natural frequency sharply decreases, and vice versa. Hence, the natural frequency can widely be controlled by using change in the length of elastic body. In this paper, the generator was designed and fabricated to change natural frequency using the slides of the case. In addition, the generating characteristics were confirmed through finite element analyses and vibration experiment. As a result, the maximum output characteristics could be generated due to resonance phenomenon although any frequency of external force was applied.
On this paper, a circular unimorph-type piezoelectric transducer was proposed and studied. The transducer was fabricated by attaching a circular-shaped PZT ceramic to a circular plate of brass and output characteristics of the fabricated transducer were then analyzed and measured by changing driving points where the mechanical vibrations were applied. Two conditions depending on the location of vibration were respectively defined as a center forced model and an edge forced model. The resonance frequency and output voltage of the models were simulated by using ANSYS, a FEM(finite element method) program. Based on the results of the analyses, the vibration experiment was conducted and the output characteristics then measured through measurement equipment. As a result, the maximum output characteristics of two models were respectively generated at each resonance frequency and the resonance frequency of the center forced model was lower than the edge forced model.
Wave Power Generation by Piezoelectric Sensor Attached to a Coastal Structure Kyu-Han Kim, Si-Bum Cho, Hyun-Dong Kim, Kyu-Tae Shim Journal of Sensors.2018; 2018: 1. CrossRef