Power supply is a bottle-neck problem of wireless micro-sensors, especially where the replacement of batteries is impossible or inconvenient. Now piezoelectric material is being used to harvest vibration energy for self-powered sensors. However, the geometry of a piezoelectric cantilever beam will greatly affect its vibration energy harvesting ability. This paper deduces a remarkably precise an...

The concept of “energy harvesting” is to design smart systems to capture the ambient energy and to convert it to usable electrical power for supplying small electronics devices and sensors. The goal is to develop autonomous and self-powered devices that do not need any replacement of traditional electrochemical batteries. Now piezoelectric cantilever structures are being used to harvest vibrati...

The power generation capacity of piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) is not only related to the properties of the piezoelectric material, the vibration magnitude and the subsequent conditioning circuit, but also to the fixation modes and adjustment methods. In this paper, a commercial piezoelectric ceramic plate (PCP) in simply supported beam fixation mode and cantilever beam fixation mode w...

Two geometrically nonlinear plate theories, based either on firstor third-order transverse shear deformation theory are used for finite element modeling and simulation of the transient response of smart structures incorporating piezoelectric layers. In particular the time histories of nonlinear vibrations and sensor voltage output of a thin beam with a piezoelectric patch bonded to the surface ...

The paper reviews the recent applications of piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and repair conducted by the authors. First, commonly used piezoelectric materials in structural health monitoring and structure repair are introduced. The analysis of plain piezoelectric sensors and actuators and interdigital transducer and their applications in beam, plate and pipe structures f...

Wave propagation in composite structures with shunted piezoelectric patches is investigated in this work. The Wave Finite Element(WFE) approach is firstly developed as a prediction tool for wave propagation characteristics like dispersion curves in composite structures, and subsequently extended to consider shunted piezoelectric elements through the Diffusion Matrix Model(DMM). A three-layered ...

In this paper, controlling the location of the tip of an L-shape beam under gravity field is investigated. The beam is covered with piezoelectric patches. The gravity filed moves the tip of beam downward and the actuators with induced voltage move the tip to the previous location. to optimize the best location and voltages for actuators, the particle swarm optimization algorithm code is develop...

This paper investigates the use of capacitive proximity sensors as sources of contact-free feedback signal measurement for active vibration attenuation applications. An experimental laboratory device is introduced, which consists of a clamped cantilever beam and actuated by bonded piezoelectric actuators. A measurement model is created and experimentally verified for the assessment of beam tip ...

This paper studies dynamic stability of homogeneous beams with piezoelectric layers subjected to periodic axial compressive load that is simply supported at both ends lies on a continuous elastic foundation. The displacement field of beam is assumed based on Bernoulli-Euler beam theory. Applying the Hamilton's principle, the governing dynamic equation is established. The influences of applied v...

Piezoelectric actuation is widely used for the active vibration control of smart structural systems, and corresponding research has largely focused on linear electromechanical devices. This paper investigates the design and analysis of a novel piezoelectric actuator that uses a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a loading spring to produce displacement outputs. This device has a special nonline...