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Engineering Mechanics

Clemson University

Energy Harvesting

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering Science and Materials

Parametric Instabilities For Vibratory Energy Harvesting Under Harmonic, Time-Varying Frequency, And Random Excitations, Christopher Stabler Aug 2010

Parametric Instabilities For Vibratory Energy Harvesting Under Harmonic, Time-Varying Frequency, And Random Excitations, Christopher Stabler

All Theses

This effort investigates and evaluates the prospect of using parametric instabilities for vibratory energy harvesting. To that end, we consider a parametrically-excited piezoelectric cantilever beam and study its performance as an energy harvester under i) fixed-frequency harmonic excitations, ii) time-varying frequency excitations, and iii) band-limited Gaussian noise. In the case of fixed-frequency excitations, we use the Method of Multiple Scales to obtain approximate analytical expressions for the steady-state response amplitude and instantaneous output power in the vicinity of the first principle parametric resonance. We show that the electromechanical coupling and load resistance play an important role in determining the output …


Electromechanical Modeling And Analysis Of A Self-Excited Micro-Power Generator, Amin Bibo Aug 2010

Electromechanical Modeling And Analysis Of A Self-Excited Micro-Power Generator, Amin Bibo

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Micro-power generators (MPGs) are compact, scalable, and low-maintenance energy harvesting devices that capture and transform wasted ambient energy into electricity.
Such devices, which are currently being researched as a possible replacement for batteries, can act as a power source to maintain and allow autonomous operations of
remote low-power consumption sensors. This thesis introduces a novel MPG which transforms wind energy into electricity via wind-induced self-excited oscillations
of piezoelectric cantilever beams. The operation concept of the device is simple: similar to music-playing harmonica that create tones via oscillations of reeds when
subjected to air blow, the proposed device uses flow-induced self-excited …