Improving Energy Harvesting from Bridge Vibration Excited by Moving Vehicles with a Bi-Stable Harvester.

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.

Mechanical Shunt Resonators-Based Piezoelectric Metamaterial for Elastic Wave Attenuation.

The conventional piezoelectric metamaterials with operational-amplifier-based shunt circuits have limited application due to the voltage restriction of the amplifiers. In this research, we report a novel piezoelectric metamaterial beam that takes advantage of mechanical shunt resonators. The proposed metamaterial beam consisted of a piezoelectric beam and remote mechanical piezoelectric resonators coupled with electrical wires. The local resonance of the remote mechanical shunt resonators modified the mechanical properties of the beam, yielding an elastic wave attenuation capability. A finite-length piezoelectric metamaterial beam and mechanical shunt resonators were considered for conceptual illustration. Significant elastic wave attenuation can be realized in the vicinity of the resonant frequency of the shunt resonators. The proposed system has the potential in the application of wave attenuation under large-amplitude excitations.

Nonlinear dynamics of discontinuous uncertain oscillators with unilateral constraints.

Nonlinear dynamics of discontinuous oscillators with unilateral constraints and non-random parametric uncertainties are investigated. Nonlinear oscillators considering single- and double-sided constraints are carefully constructed to exhibit rich bifurcations, such as period-doubling and Neimark-Sacker bifurcations. In deterministic amplitude-frequency responses, both hardening and softening effects are induced by non-smooth contact-type nonlinearities. Stabilities of the solutions are determined by the shooting method and the monodromy matrix. To effectively quantify the behaviors of nonlinear oscillators in the presence of parametric uncertainties, a non-intrusive surrogate function aided by arc-length ratio interpolation is constructed. Simulation results demonstrate variabilities of nonlinear responses under different non-random uncertainties. Moreover, an accuracy verification is provided to verify the effectiveness of the non-intrusive uncertainty propagation method. It is found that the surrogate function in combination with the arc-length ratio technique has high accuracy and evolutions of turning points are captured satisfactorily regardless of complex interactions of nonlinearities and uncertainties. The findings and methodologies reported are meaningful to general nonlinear systems having complex motions, paving the road for more in-depth investigations into uncertain nonlinear dynamics.

Transient nonlinear dynamics of the rotor system supported by low viscosity lubricated bearing.

This paper clarifies the mechanism of the dynamic characteristics of the water-lubricated bearing-rotor coupling system at different operating stages. Dynamic models of the water-lubricated bearing-rotor system under fluid lubrication are developed. The influences of different operating modules on the dynamic characteristics are investigated. The effects of different speeds, different loads, and different impacts are analyzed. The time domain responses, axis orbits, and phase diagram are gained. Velocity has impacts on the vibration performance of the shaft. The external load has slight effects on the vibration characteristics. Different forms of transient impacts have different effects on the vibration characteristics. The validity of the new-built models is verified by experiments. Results provide theoretical foundations for the optimum design for such bearing-rotor systems.

Harvesting Energy from Bridge Vibration by Piezoelectric Structure with Magnets Tailoring Potential Energy.

Bridges play an increasingly more important role in modern transportation, which is why many sensors are mounted on it in order to provide safety. However, supplying reliable power to these sensors has always been a great challenge. Scavenging energy from bridge vibration to power the wireless sensors has attracted more attention in recent years. Moreover, it has been proved that the linear energy harvester cannot always work efficiently since the vibration energy of the bridge distributes over a broad frequency band. In this paper, a nonlinear energy harvester is proposed to enhance the performance of harvesting bridge vibration energy. Analyses on potential energy, restoring force, and stiffness were carried out. By adjusting the separation distance between magnets, the harvester could own a low and flat potential energy, which could help the harvester oscillate on a high-energy orbit and generate high output. For validation, corresponding experiments were carried out. The results show that the output of the optimal configuration outperforms that of the linear one. Moreover, with the increase in vehicle speed, a component of extremely low frequency is gradually enhanced, which corresponds to the motion on the high-energy orbit. This study may give an effective method of harvesting energy from bridge vibration excited by moving vehicles with different moving speeds.

Stretchable piezoelectric energy harvesters and self-powered sensors for wearable and implantable devices.

Wearable and implantable bio-integrated electronics have started to gain momentum because of their essential role in improving the quality of life for various patients and healthy individuals. However, their continuous operation is often limited by traditional battery technologies with a limited lifespan, creating a significant challenge for their development. Thus, it is highly desirable to harvest biomechanical energies from human motion for self-powered bio-integrated functional devices. Piezoelectric energy harvesters are ideal candidates to achieve this goal by converting biomechanical energy to electric energy. Because of their applications on soft and highly deformable tissues of the human body, these devices also need to be mechanically flexible and stretchable, thus posing a significant challenge. Effective methods to address the challenge include the exploration of new stretchable piezoelectric materials (e.g., hybrid composite material) and stretchable structures (e.g., buckled shapes, serpentine mesh layouts, kirigami designs, among others). This review presents an overview of the recent developments in new intrinsically stretchable piezoelectric materials and rigid inorganic piezoelectric materials with novel stretchable structures for flexible and stretchable piezoelectric sensors and energy harvesters. Following the discussion of theoretical modeling of the piezoelectric materials to convert mechanical deformations into electrical signals, the representative applications of stretchable piezoelectric materials and structures in wearable and implantable devices are briefly summarized. The present limitations and future research directions of flexible and stretchable piezoelectric devices are then discussed.

Harvesting Variable-Speed Wind Energy with a Dynamic Multi-Stable Configuration.

To harvest the energy of variable-speed wind, we proposed a dynamic multi-stable configuration composed of a piezoelectric beam and a rectangular plate. At low wind speeds, the system exhibits bi-stability, whereas, at high wind speeds, the system exhibits a dynamic tri-stability, which is beneficial for harvesting variable-speed wind energy. The theoretical analysis was carried out. For validation, the prototype was fabricated, and a piezoelectric material was bonded to the beam. The corresponding experiment was conducted, with the wind speed increasing from 1.5 to 7.5 m/s. The experiment results prove that the proposed harvester could generate a large output over the speed range. The dynamic stability is helpful to maintain snap-through motion for variable-speed wind. In particular, the snap-through motion could reach coherence resonance in a range of wind speed. Thus, the system could keep large output in the environment of variable-speed wind.

Transfer Printing and its Applications in Flexible Electronic Devices.

Flexible electronic systems have received increasing attention in the past few decades because of their wide-ranging applications that include the flexible display, eyelike digital camera, skin electronics, and intelligent surgical gloves, among many other health monitoring devices. As one of the most widely used technologies to integrate rigid functional devices with elastomeric substrates for the manufacturing of flexible electronic devices, transfer printing technology has been extensively studied. Though primarily relying on reversible interfacial adhesion, a variety of advanced transfer printing methods have been proposed and demonstrated. In this review, we first summarize the characteristics of a few representative methods of transfer printing. Next, we will introduce successful demonstrations of each method in flexible electronic devices. Moreover, the potential challenges and future development opportunities for transfer printing will then be briefly discussed.