On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device
In this paper, we propose an active control method to adjust the resonance frequency of a capacitive energy harvester. To this end, the resonance frequency of the harvester is tuned using an electrostatic force, which is actively controlled by a voltage source. The spring softening effect of the ele...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Vibration |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-631X/5/3/35 |
| _version_ | 1797481465732136960 |
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| author | Mortaza Aliasghary Saber Azizi Hadi Madinei Hamed Haddad Khodaparast |
| author_facet | Mortaza Aliasghary Saber Azizi Hadi Madinei Hamed Haddad Khodaparast |
| author_sort | Mortaza Aliasghary |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper, we propose an active control method to adjust the resonance frequency of a capacitive energy harvester. To this end, the resonance frequency of the harvester is tuned using an electrostatic force, which is actively controlled by a voltage source. The spring softening effect of the electrostatic force is used to accommodate the dominant frequency of the ambient mechanical vibration within the bandwidth of the resonance region. A single degree of freedom is considered, and the nonlinear equation of motion is numerically integrated over time. Using a conventional proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control mechanism, the results demonstrated that our controller could shift the resonance frequency leftward on the frequency domain and, as a result, improve the efficiency of the energy harvester, provided that the excitation frequency is lower than the resonance frequency of the energy harvester. Application of the PID controller in the resonance zone resulted in pull-in instability, adversely affecting the harvester’s performance. To tackle this problem, we embedded a saturation mechanism in the path of the control signal to prevent a sudden change in motion amplitude. Outside the pull-in band, the saturation of the control signal resulted in the reduction of harvested power compared to the non-saturated signal; this is a promising improvement in the design and analysis of energy harvesting devices. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:15:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-250cd664c88644dba42d0ce5c26f7ef6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2571-631X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:15:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Vibration |
| spelling | doaj.art-250cd664c88644dba42d0ce5c26f7ef62023-11-23T19:24:50ZengMDPI AGVibration2571-631X2022-09-015360361210.3390/vibration5030035On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting DeviceMortaza Aliasghary0Saber Azizi1Hadi Madinei2Hamed Haddad Khodaparast3Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Industrial Technologies, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia 5716693188, IranMechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Renewable Energies, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia 5716693188, IranFaculty of Science and Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea SA1 8EN, UKFaculty of Science and Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea SA1 8EN, UKIn this paper, we propose an active control method to adjust the resonance frequency of a capacitive energy harvester. To this end, the resonance frequency of the harvester is tuned using an electrostatic force, which is actively controlled by a voltage source. The spring softening effect of the electrostatic force is used to accommodate the dominant frequency of the ambient mechanical vibration within the bandwidth of the resonance region. A single degree of freedom is considered, and the nonlinear equation of motion is numerically integrated over time. Using a conventional proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control mechanism, the results demonstrated that our controller could shift the resonance frequency leftward on the frequency domain and, as a result, improve the efficiency of the energy harvester, provided that the excitation frequency is lower than the resonance frequency of the energy harvester. Application of the PID controller in the resonance zone resulted in pull-in instability, adversely affecting the harvester’s performance. To tackle this problem, we embedded a saturation mechanism in the path of the control signal to prevent a sudden change in motion amplitude. Outside the pull-in band, the saturation of the control signal resulted in the reduction of harvested power compared to the non-saturated signal; this is a promising improvement in the design and analysis of energy harvesting devices.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-631X/5/3/35capacitive energy harvestingMEMSPID controllertunabilitybase excitation |
| spellingShingle | Mortaza Aliasghary Saber Azizi Hadi Madinei Hamed Haddad Khodaparast On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device Vibration capacitive energy harvesting MEMS PID controller tunability base excitation |
| title | On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device |
| title_full | On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device |
| title_fullStr | On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device |
| title_short | On the Efficiency Enhancement of an Actively Tunable MEMS Energy Harvesting Device |
| title_sort | on the efficiency enhancement of an actively tunable mems energy harvesting device |
| topic | capacitive energy harvesting MEMS PID controller tunability base excitation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-631X/5/3/35 |
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