Two-dimensional thin plates are widely used in many aerospace, automotive and marine applications. Vibration attenuation can be achieved in these structures by attaching piezoelectric elements on to the structure integrated with shunt damping circuits. This enables a compact vibration damping method without adding significant mass and volumetric occupancy, unlike the bulky mechanical dampers. Practical implementation of shunt damping technique requires accurate modeling of the host structure, the piezoelectric elements and the dynamics of the shunt circuit. Unlike other studies in the literature of piezoelectric shunt damping, this work utilizes a multi-modal equivalent circuit model (ECM) of a thin plate with multiple piezo-patches, to demonstrate the performance of shunt circuits. The equivalent system parameters are obtained from the modal analysis solution based on the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The ECM is coupled to the shunt circuits in SPICE software, where the shunt configuration consists of three branches of electrical resonators, each tuned to one vibration mode of the structure. Using the harmonic analysis in SPICE for a range of excitation frequencies, current output of each ECM branch is calculated for open-circuit and optimum shunt circuit conditions. The current of ECM branches are then converted to the displacement outputs in physical coordinates and validated by the finite-element simulations in ANSYS. It is shown that the vibration attenuation of a vibration mode can be successfully achieved when there is a reduction in the corresponding current amplitude of the ECM branch. This correlation can be utilized in the design of efficient linear/nonlinear shunt circuits.
Piezoelectric patch energy harvesters can be directly integrated to plate-like structures which are widely used in automotive, marine and aerospace applications, to convert vibrational energy to electrical energy. This paper presents two different AC-DC conversion techniques for multiple patch harvesters, namely single rectifier and respective rectifiers. The first case considers all the piezo-patches are connected in parallel to a single rectifier, whereas in the second case, each harvester is respectively rectified and then connected in parallel to a smoothing capacitor and a resistive load. The latter configuration of AC-DC conversion helps to avoid the electrical charge cancellation which is a problem with the multiple harvesters attached to different locations of the host plate surface. Equivalent circuit model of the multiple piezo-patch harvesters is developed in the SPICE software to simulate the electrical response. The system parameters are obtained from the modal analysis solution of the plate. Simulations of the voltage frequency response functions (FRFs) for the standard AC input – AC output case are conducted and validated by experimental data. Finally, for the AC input – DC output case, numerical simulation and experimental results of the power outputs of multiple piezo-patch harvesters with multiple AC-DC converters are obtained for a wide range of resistive loads and compared with the same array of harvesters connected to a single AC-DC converter.
Plate-like components are widely used in numerous automotive, marine, and aerospace applications where they can be employed as host structures for vibration based energy harvesting. Piezoelectric patch harvesters can be easily attached to these structures to convert the vibrational energy to the electrical energy. Power output investigations of these harvesters require accurate models for energy harvesting performance evaluation and optimization. Equivalent circuit modeling of the cantilever-based vibration energy harvesters for estimation of electrical response has been proposed in recent years. However, equivalent circuit formulation and analytical modeling of multiple piezo-patch energy harvesters integrated to thin plates including nonlinear circuits has not been studied. In this study, equivalent circuit model of multiple parallel piezoelectric patch harvesters together with a resistive load is built in electronic circuit simulation software SPICE and voltage frequency response functions (FRFs) are validated using the analytical distributedparameter model. Analytical formulation of the piezoelectric patches in parallel configuration for the DC voltage output is derived while the patches are connected to a standard AC-DC circuit. The analytic model is based on the equivalent load impedance approach for piezoelectric capacitance and AC-DC circuit elements. The analytic results are validated numerically via SPICE simulations. Finally, DC power outputs of the harvesters are computed and compared with the peak power amplitudes in the AC output case.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.