Performance evaluation of a novel piezoelectric-based high-frequency surge-inducing synchronized switching strategy for micro-scale energy harvesting

• Published in: Mechanical systems and signal processing Vol. 117; pp. 361 - 382
• Main Authors: Kwon, Seong-Cheol, Onoda, Junjiro, Oh, Hyun-Ung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Elsevier Ltd 15.02.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Electric properties; Energy harvesting; Energy management; Harvest; Harvesters; Harvesting; Micro-vibration; Microprocessors; Performance evaluation; Piezoelectric; Piezoelectricity; Power consumption; Strategy; Surge; Switching; Synchronized switch; Vibration; Synchronized switch; Micro-vibration; Harvesting; Surge; Piezoelectric
• ISSN: 0888-3270; 1096-1216
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2018.08.030

•This study suggested a novel switching strategy that exploits the full potential of the surge phenomenon to effectively improve the energy harvesting efficiency of the piezoelectric harvester.•This strategy can guarantee the promising harvesting performance even for micro-scale vibrations.•The basic is to make the switching duration relatively longer than the conventional one, while realizing a high-frequency switching. Thereby, both demands of maximizing the incoming energy and maintaining the surging mechanism can be satisfied.•The effectiveness of the proposed strategy was evaluated through numerical simulations and evaluation tests. Energy harvesting technology has recently received remarkable attention in line with progressive developments in low-power-consuming microsystems used in daily applications. In particular, piezoelectric elements have received considerable attention for promising energy harvesting systems because of their applicability and simplicity. In this study, a high-frequency surge-inducing synchronized switching (H-S3HI) strategy that exploits the full potential of the surge phenomenon is proposed to effectively improve the energy harvesting efficiency of piezoelectric harvesters. Moreover, this strategy can guarantee the useable energy harvesting performance even for micro-scale vibrations. The effectiveness of the proposed switching strategy was demonstrated by performing numerical simulations and experiments with a cantilever-type piezoelectric harvester under sinusoidal and random-vibration conditions.