Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Efficient Energy Harvesting With Applications In Vibration And Implantable Biosensors, Mohammad Atmeh

Mechanical Engineering Theses

The world has stepped into the fourth industrial revolution in many ways such as using the internet of things (IoT) in various applications, and removing the rechargeable power sources seeking for batteryless systems. Since energy is widely abundant around us and it is going to waste, numerous of recent studies have been conducted to propose sustainable solutions to harvest the free ambient power from the surrounding and convert it into electricity. Heat energy, kinetic energy, and radio waves are examples of these potentially harvestable energy sources. Mechanical vibrations represent one of the most plentiful forms of kinetic energy that can …

Effect Of The Nonlinear Material Viscosity On The Performance Of Dielectric Elastomer Transducers, Yuanping Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a typical type of soft electroactive materials, dielectric elastomers (DEs) are capable of producing large voltage-induced deformation, which makes them desirable materials for a variety of applications in transduction technology, including tunable oscillators, resonators, biomimetics and energy harvesters. The dynamic and energy harvesting performance of such DE-based devices is strongly affected not only by multiple failure modes such as electrical breakdown, electromechanical instability, loss-of-tension and fatigue, but also by their material viscoelasticity. Moreover, as suggested by experiments and theoretical studies, DEs possess nonlinear relaxation processes, which makes modeling of the performance of DE-based devices more challenging.

In this thesis, …

Characterization Of Solar Roadways Via Computational And Experimental Investigations, Rajesh Kanna Selvaraju

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Efficiency of traditional solar panels is known to be very low and hence necessitates the use of extensive open spaces for producing solar-based electric power. In solar roadways concept, open spaces such as roads, parking lots, bicycle lanes, footpaths are proposed to be utilized. An in-depth quantitative feasibility study for implementing solar roadways in Canada is carried out considering the total available surfaces, solar panel efficiency and effects of fast moving shades. The load carrying capability of commercially available materials for the solar panel top cover is studied in an effort to examine the current as well as near-future implementation …