Journal
MATERIALS
Volume 15, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ma15062237
Keywords
energy harvesting; bridge vibration; bi-stable energy harvester; linear energy harvester; snap-through motion
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [52005155]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2020M673470]
- Key Scientific Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province [20A130001]
- Key Research Development and Promotion Project in Henan Province [202102310249, 212102310952]
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This study proposes a strategy to improve the electrical energy output of a piezoelectric energy harvester installed on a bridge by introducing bi-stable characteristics. A bi-stable harvester is designed and the experiment results show that it outperforms the classical linear harvester over the whole range of vehicle speed.
To monitor the health status of the bridge, many sensors are needed to be mounted on it. Converting bridge vibration energy to electrical energy is considered as a potential solution to the problem of providing reliable electric power to these sensors. The objective of this work is to present an operable strategy for improving the electric energy output of a piezoelectric energy harvester installed on a bridge by introducing bi-stable characteristics. A bi-stable harvester is proposed. By adjusting the tip and fixed magnets, different types of potential energy can be generated, and then the harvester can exhibit the linear, mono-stable and bi-stable characteristics. In the bi-stable state, the harvester triggers snap-through motions easily and generates large outputs. The corresponding prototype was fabricated, and the experiment was carried out to validate the advantage of the bi-stable energy harvester. The experiment results show that the bi-stable energy harvester outperforms the classical linear harvester over the whole range of vehicle speed. As the vehicle speed exceeds a critical one, the snap-through motion will happen, which is beneficial to enhancing the electricity output. This conceptual design may provide guidance for promoting the performance of bridge energy harvesting.
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