• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.219-219
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• 2008

Energy harvesting from the environment has been of great interest as a standalone power source of wireless sensor nodes for ubiquitous sensor networks (USN). There are several power generating methods such as thermal gradients, solar cell, energy produced by human action, mechanical vibration energy, and so on. Most of all, mechanical vibration is easily accessible and has no limitation of weather and environment of outdoor or indoor. In particular, the piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has attracted attention because it has a relative high power density comparing with other energy scavenging methods. Through recent advances in low power consumption RF transmitters and sensors, it is possible to adopt a micro-power energy harvesting system realized by MEMS technology for the system-on-chip. However, the MEMS energy harvesting system hassome drawbacks such as a high natural frequency over 300 Hz and a small power generation due to a small dimension. To overcome these limitations, we devised a novel power generator with a spiral spring structure. In this case, the energy harvester has a lower natural frequency under 200 Hz than a normal cantilever structure. Moreover, it has higher an energy conversion efficient because shear mode ($d_{15}$) is much larger than 33 mode ($d_{33}$) and the energy conversion efficiency is proportional to the piezoelectric constant (d). We expect the spiral type MEMS power generator would be a good candidate as a standalone power generator for USN.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.249-265
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• 2016

A bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester is developed for harvesting energy under the vortex induced vibration and it is integrated to a host structure of a trapezoidal plate without changing its passive dynamic properties. It is aimed to select trapezoidal plate as similar to a vertical fin-like structure which could be a part of an air vehicle. The designed energy harvester consists of an aluminum beam and two identical multi fiber composite (MFC) piezoelectric patches. In order to understand the dynamic characteristic of the trapezoidal plate, finite element analysis is performed and it is validated through an experimental study. The bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester is then integrated to the trapezoidal plate at the most convenient location with minimal structural displacement. The finite element model is constructed for the new combined structure in ANSYS Workbench 14.0 and the analyses performed on this particular model are then validated via experimental techniques. Finally, the energy harvesting performance of the bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester attached to the trapezoidal plate is also investigated through wind tunnel tests under the air load and the obtained results indicate that the system is a viable one for harvesting reasonable amount of energy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.495-504
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• 2021

Energy Harvesting is a technology that can convert wasted energy such as vibration, heat, light, electromagnetic energy, etc. into usable electrical energy. Among them, vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) has high energy conversion efficiency with a small volume; thus, it is expected to be used in various autonomous powering devices, such as implantable medical devices, wearable devices, and energy harvesting from road or automobiles. In this study, wasted vibration energy in an automobile is converted into electrical energy by high-power piezoelectric materials, and the generated electrical energy is found to be an auxiliary power source for the operation of wireless sensor nodes, LEDs, etc. inside an automobile. In order to properly install the PEH in an automobile, vibration characteristics includes frequency and amplitude at several positions in the automobile is monitored initially and the cantilever structured PEH was designed accordingly. The harvesting properties of fabricated PEH is characterized and installed into the engine part of the automobile, where the vibration amplitude is stable and strong. The feasibility of PEH is confirmed by operating electric components (LEDs) that can be used in practice.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.581-587
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• 2010

Using piezoelectric elements to harvest energy from ambient vibrations has been of great interest over the past few years. Due to the relatively low power output of piezoelectric materials, there are many study to improve the energy harvesting efficiencies. This paper is study the efficiencies of the output energy considering the cantilever piezoelectric bimorph using aluminum vibration beam. when the length of vibration beam and the piezoelectric body becomes same and the maximum output power comes out. DC voltage was increased as the beam thickness and vibration frequency was increased. The vibration beam was able to achieve very large energy value.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.277-277
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• 2009

In this paper, PMPG (Piezoelectric Micro Power Generator) was investigated by ANSYS FEA (Finite Element Analysis) to decrease operating frequency and improve out power. The micro power generator was designed to convert ambient vibration energy to electrical power as a ZnO piezoelectric material. To find optimal model in low vibration ambient, the shape of power generator was changed with different membrane width, thickness, length, and proof mass size. Used the ANSYS modal analysis, bending mode and stress distribution of optimal model were analyzed. Also, the displacement with the frequency range was analyzed by harmonic analysis. From the simulation results, the resonance frequency of optimal model is about 373 Hz and confirmed the possibility of ZnO micro power generator for wireless sensor node applications.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.488-495
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new AC/DC RPPB(Resonant Piezo-Powered Boost) converter for energy harvesting using a piezoelectric device which converts mechanical vibration energy to electrical energy. The AC/DC RPPB converter can operate with only the harvested energy without an additional power conversion circuit for switching circuit and transfer energy to a load of which the voltage is higher than piezoelectric voltage. With the review of published topologies of the converter for energy harvesting, the operation principle of the AC/DC RPPB converter, and the results of PSPICE simulation and experiment are presented to prove the feasibility of the new converter for the energy harvesting.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.87-97
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• 2020

In general, tires require various sensors and power supply devices, such as batteries, to obtain information such as pressure, temperature, acceleration, and the friction coefficient between the tire and the road in real time. However, these sensors have a size limitation because they are mounted on a tire, and their batteries have limited usability due to short replacement cycles, leading to additional replacement costs. Therefore, vibration energy harvesting technology, which converts the dynamic strain energy generated from the tire into electrical energy and then stores the energy in a power supply, is advantageous. In this study, the output voltage and power generated from piezoelectric elements are predicted through finite element analysis under static state and transient state conditions, taking into account the dynamic characteristics of tires. First, the tire and piezoelectric elements are created as a finite element model and then the natural frequency and mode shapes are identified through modal analysis. Next, in the static state, with the piezoelectric element attached to the inside of the tire, the voltage distribution at the contact surface between the tire and the road is examined. Lastly, in the transient state, with the tire rotating at the speeds of 30 km/h and 50 km/h, the output voltage and power characteristics of the piezoelectric elements attached to four locations inside the tire are evaluated.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.31-34
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• 2013

Based on the structural analysis of cantilever and the piezoelectric effect, we propose a new design of piezoelectric cantilever to harvest maximum vibration energy. Geometric parameters of piezoelectric cantilever are optimized according to two different types of cantilever structure. The main factors that affect the harvesting performance of the cantilever was the shape of the cantilever and the load at the free end. The amount of charge is affected by piezoelectric constant and mechanical strain of the cantilever.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.65-71
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• 2009

This paper presents the energy harvesting technique which is carried out by vibration system with a piezoelectric element. In this study, low frequency characteristics of the piezoelectric element bonded to the aluminum cantilever were experimentally investigated. The piezoelectric element of size of $45L{\times}11W{\times}0.6H$ and piezoelectric constant($d_{31}$ ) of $-180{\times}10^{-12}C/N$ was used. The material of cantilever is an aluminum and two kinds of cantilever of which dimensions are (150, 190)$[mm]{\times}13[mm]{\times}1.5[mm]$ were experimented, respectively. The cantilever was fixed on the magnetic type vibrator and the vibrator was operated by power input with a sine wave. The characteristics of requency and mass variation of cantilever end part such as 0, 2.22, 4.34, 5.87, 8.66, 11.01 [g] were investigated. Finally, this paper suggests a method of generating electrical energy with a piezoelectric element using wind, an energy source that is easily applied and from which we can obtain "clean" energy.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.660-663
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• 2007

Piezoelectric energy harvesting from our surrounding vibration has been studied for driving the wireless sensor node. To change the vibration energy into the electric-energy efficiently, the natural frequency of cantilever needs to be adjusted to that of a vibration source. When adding 6.80g mass on the end of the fabricated cantilever, a natural frequency shifts from 136 Hz into 49.5 Hz. In addition, electro-mechanical coupling factor increased from 10.20% to 11.90% and resulted in the 1.18 times increase of maximum output power.