ENERGY HARVESTING AND OPTIMIZATION USING ACTIVE RESONANCE FITTING

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Design and Production Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, 11517 Cairo, Egypt

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

3 Centre of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Processing (AMMP), Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Energy harvesting is an emerging topic recently. This harvested energy is used to
operate wireless sensors for different industrial monitoring and automation. To
maximize the harvested energy in spinning systems, the harvester should vibrate at
resonance for different spinning frequencies which can be achieved by active fitting.
In this research, a novel methodology was developed by actively customizing the
length of vibrating element beam to manipulate its natural frequency according to the
spinning frequency. Different models were investigated numerically and
experimentally to verify the proposed methodology. COMSOL Multiphysics software
V5.1 was used to develop the numerical model, then and tip deformation and voltage
difference results were benchmarked. The numerical model was verified
experimentally by attaching a piezoelectric MIDE PPA 1021 which its vibrating
length was varied by changing the supporting length from 0 mm to 12 mm to a
spinning object having variable frequency from 0-200 Hz. It is found that the MIDE
PPA 1021 beam vibrated at its resonance throughout the specified spinning
frequencies. The proposed harvester can be applied in battery-free sensors being used
in automotives, wind-mills blades, and rotating machinery.

Keywords