Study on the Influence of Coil Arrangement on the Output Characteristics of Electromagnetic Galloping Energy Harvester.

The arrangement of the induction coil influences the electromagnetic damping force and output characteristics of electromagnetic energy harvesters. Based on the aforementioned information, this paper presents a proposal for a multiple off-center coil electromagnetic galloping energy harvester (MEGEH). This study establishes both a theoretical model and a physical model to research the influence of the position and quantity of the induction coils on the output characteristics of an energy harvester. Additionally, it conducts wind tunnel tests and analyzes the obtained results. With the increase in the number of induction coils, there is a significant improvement in the duty cycle and output power of the MEGEH, resulting in an amplified energy conversion efficiency. At a wind speed of 9 m/s, the duty ratios of a single set of coils (SC), two sets of coils (TC), and multiple sets of coils (MC) are 30%, 51%, and 100%, respectively. The total output powers are 0.4 mW, 0.62 mW, and 0.72 mW. However, the rate of output growth has decreased from 55% to 16%. The position of the coils affects the initial electromagnetic damping of the energy harvester. Changing the position can reduce the initial electromagnetic damping, thereby decreasing the critical wind speed. The critical wind speed of the MEGEH decreases as the induction coil is positioned further away from the vibration center. When the distance is sufficiently large, the electromagnetic damping force becomes negligible. When the induction coil is positioned centrally, the MEGEH demonstrates its maximum critical wind speed, which has been measured at 4.01 m/s. When the initial distance between the induction coil and the vibrating component is increased to 10 mm, the critical wind speed reaches its minimum value of 2.23 m/s. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the arrangement of the coils. The coils of the MEGEH should be arranged with the MC and a 10 mm offset from the center.

The Design and Experiment of a Spring-Coupling Electromagnetic Galloping Energy Harvester.

In order to improve the output characteristics of the electromagnetic energy harvester in a high-speed flow field, a spring-coupling electromagnetic energy harvester (SEGEH) is proposed, based on the galloping characteristics of a large amplitude. The electromechanical model of the SEGEH was established, the test prototype was made, and the experiments were conducted using a wind tunnel platform. The coupling spring can convert the vibration energy consumed by the vibration stroke of the bluff body without inducing an electromotive force into the elastic energy of the spring. This not only reduces the galloping amplitude, but it also provides elastic force for the return of the bluff body, and it improves the duty cycle of the induced electromotive force and the output power of the energy harvester. The stiffness of the coupling spring and the initial distance between the coupling spring and the bluff body will affect the output characteristics of the SEGEH. At a wind speed of 14 m/s, the output voltage was 103.2 mV and the output power was 0.79 mW. Compared with the energy harvester without a coupling spring (EGEH), the output voltage increases by 29.4 mV, with an increase of 39.8%. The output power was increased by 0.38 mW, with an increase of 92.7%.

Dynamics Analysis of Penetration against Pebble-Concrete Target.

The classical continuum mechanics theory cannot sufficiently describe the effect of pebbles on projectile, which leads to a large calculation error. In this paper, an orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system is constructed, which effectively describes and perfects the normal cavity expansion theory. A couple stress theory based on the normal cavity expansion is proposed in which not only the tangential movements but also the rotations of the concrete medium are considered. According to the high-speed impact of pebble concrete, combined with dynamic equations and the FE simulation, the theoretical and simulation results of pebble particles scale on warhead resistance are compared. It is shown that, the larger the scale of pebble particles, the stronger the effect of rotation on the resistant force applied on the warhead.

A Frequency-Adjustable Tuning Fork Electromagnetic Energy Harvester.

In this paper, a frequency-adjustable tuning fork electromagnetic energy harvester is introduced. The electromagnetic vibration energy harvester can adjust its natural frequency according to a change in the environmental excitation frequency without any change to the structure. In the frequency-adjustable range, it can make the energy harvester resonant with the environment excitation, and the output frequency stays the same. The frequency-adjustable tuning fork electromagnetic energy harvester significantly increases the range of frequencies used. The operating frequency of the centre can be easily switched from 9.2 to 20 Hz, enabling the application of multiple excitation frequencies. In addition, the output power and power density are significantly increased compared to a piezoelectric tuning fork energy harvester of the same size. The peak power is 23.59 mW at 9.2 Hz, the power increases by 14.85 mW, and the power density increases by 169.88%. The experimental results show that the electromagnetic tuning fork frequency-adjustable conversion energy harvester can make the LED lamp work.

A Tuning Fork Frequency Up-Conversion Energy Harvester.

In this paper, a novel tuning fork structure for self-frequency up-conversion is proposed. The structure has an in-phase vibration mode and an anti-phase vibration mode. The in-phase vibration mode is used to sense the environment vibration, and the anti-phase vibration mode is used for energy conversion and power generation. The low-frequency energy collection and the high-frequency energy conversion can be achieved simultaneously. Theoretical and experimental results show that the tuning fork frequency up-conversion energy harvester has excellent performance. This structure provides the energy harvester with excellent output power in a low-frequency vibration environment. At the resonant frequency of 7.3 Hz under 0.7 g acceleration, the peak voltage is 41.8 V and the peak power is 8.74 mW. The tuning fork frequency up-conversion energy harvester causes the humidity sensor to work stably. The structure has the potential to power wireless sensor nodes or to be used as a small portable vibration storage device, especially suitable for the monitoring of the environment related to human movement.

Micromachined Vibrating Ring Gyroscope Architecture with High-Linearity, Low Quadrature Error and Improved Mode Ordering.

A new micromachined vibrating ring gyroscope (VRG) architecture with low quadrature error and high-linearity is proposed, which successfully optimizes the working modes to first order resonance mode of the structure. The improved mode ordering can significantly reduce the vibration sensitivity of the device by adopting the hinge-frame mechanism. The frequency difference ratio is introduced to represent the optimization effect of modal characteristic. Furthermore, the influence of the structural parameters of hinge-frame mechanism on frequency difference ratio is clarified through analysis of related factors, which contributes to a more effective design of hinge-frame structure. The designed VRG architecture accomplishes the goal of high-linearity by using combination hinge and variable-area capacitance strategy, in contrast to the conventional approach via variable-separation drive/sense strategy. Finally, finite element method (FEM) simulations are carried out to investigate the stiffness, modal analysis, linearity, and decoupling characteristics of the design. The simulation results are sufficiently in agreement with theoretical calculations. Meanwhile, the hinge-frame mechanism can be widely applied in other existing ring gyroscopes, and the new design provides a path towards ultra-high performance for VRG.

Output of MEMS Piezoelectric Energy Harvester of Double-Clamped Beams with Different Width Shapes.

For a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) piezoelectric energy harvester consisting of double-clamped beams, the effects of both beam shape and electrode arrangement on the voltage outputs are analyzed. For two kinds of harvester structures including millimeter-scale and micro-scale, and different shapes including rectangular, segmentally trapezoidal and concave parabolic are taken into account. Corresponding electric outputs are calculated and tested. Their results are in good agreement with each other. The experimental results validate the theoretical analysis.

Design and Mechanical Sensitivity Analysis of a MEMS Tuning Fork Gyroscope with an Anchored Leverage Mechanism.

This paper presents the design and analysis of a new micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) tuning fork gyroscope (TFG), which can effectively improve the mechanical sensitivity of the gyroscope sense-mode by the designed leverage mechanism. A micromachined TFG with an anchored leverage mechanism is designed. The dynamics and mechanical sensitivity of the design are theoretically analyzed. The improvement rate of mechanical sensitivity (IRMS) is introduced to represent the optimization effect of the new structure compared with the conventional one. The analytical solutions illustrate that the IRMS monotonically increases with increased stiffness ratio of the power arm (SRPA) but decreases with increased stiffness ratio of the resistance arm (SRRA). Therefore, three types of gyro structures with different stiffness ratios are designed. The mechanical sensitivities increased by 79.10%, 81.33% and 68.06% by theoretical calculation. Additionally, FEM simulation demonstrates that the mechanical sensitivity of the design is in accord with theoretical results. The linearity of design is analyzed, too. Consequently, the proposed new anchored leverage mechanism TFG offers a higher displacement output of sense mode to improve the mechanical sensitivity.

Mechanical Behavior of Liquid Nitrile Rubber-Modified Epoxy Resin under Static and Dynamic Loadings: Experimental and Constitutive Analysis.

Quasi-static and dynamic compression experiments were performed to study the influence of liquid nitrile rubber (LNBR) on the mechanical properties of epoxy resin. The quasi-static experiments were conducted by an electronic universal machine under strain rates of 0.0001/s and 0.001/s, while a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) system was adopted to perform the dynamic tests for strain rates up to 5600/s. The standard Zhu-Wang-Tang (ZWT) nonlinear viscoelastic model was chosen to predict the elastic behavior of LNBR/epoxy composites under a wide range of strain rates. After some necessary derivation and data fitting, a set of model parameters for the tested materials were finally obtained. Meanwhile, the incremented form of the ZWT nonlinear viscoelastic model were deduced and implemented into the user material program of LS-DYNA. A simulation-test contrast had been performed to verify the validity and feasibility of the algorithm. The results showed that the viscoelastic behavior of epoxy resin can be effectively simulated.

Study of Intrinsic Dissipation Due to Thermoelastic Coupling in Gyroscope Resonators.

This paper presents analytical models, as well as numerical and experimental verification of intrinsic dissipation due to thermoelastic loss in tuning-fork resonator. The thermoelastic analytical governing equations are created for resonator vibrating at drive-mode and sense-mode, and thermoelastic vibration field quantities are deduced. Moreover, the theoretical values are verified that coincided well with finite element analysis (FEM) simulation results. Also, the comparison of vibration field quantities is made to investigate the effect of different conditions on resonator thermoelastic vibration behavior. The significant parameters of thermoelastic damping and quality factor are subsequently deduced to analyze the energy dissipation situation in the vibration process. Meanwhile, the corresponding conclusions from other studies are used to verify our theoretical model and numerical results. By comparing with the experimental quality factor, the numerical values are validated. The combination of the theoretical expressions, numerical results and experimental data leads to an important insight into the achievable quality factor value of tuning-fork resonator, namely, that the thermoelastic damping is the main loss mechanism in the micro-comb finger structure and the quality factor varies under different vibration modes. The results demonstrate that the critical geometry dimensions of tuning-fork resonator can be well designed with the assistance of this study.

Vibration Sensitivity Reduction of Micromachined Tuning Fork Gyroscopes through Stiffness Match Method with Negative Electrostatic Spring Effect.

In this paper, a stiffness match method is proposed to reduce the vibration sensitivity of micromachined tuning fork gyroscopes. Taking advantage of the coordinate transformation method, a theoretical model is established to analyze the anti-phase vibration output caused by the stiffness mismatch due to the fabrication imperfections. The analytical solutions demonstrate that the stiffness mismatch is proportional to the output induced by the external linear vibration from the sense direction in the anti-phase mode frequency. In order to verify the proposed stiffness match method, a tuning fork gyroscope (TFG) with the stiffness match electrodes is designed and implemented using the micromachining technology and the experimental study is carried out. The experimental tests illustrate that the vibration output can be reduced by 73.8% through the stiffness match method than the structure without the stiffness match. Therefore, the proposed stiffness match method is experimentally validated to be applicable to vibration sensitivity reduction in the Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) tuning fork gyroscopes without sacrificing the scale factor.

Design and Vibration Sensitivity Analysis of a MEMS Tuning Fork Gyroscope with an Anchored Diamond Coupling Mechanism.

In this paper, a new micromachined tuning fork gyroscope (TFG) with an anchored diamond coupling mechanism is proposed while the mode ordering and the vibration sensitivity are also investigated. The sense-mode of the proposed TFG was optimized through use of an anchored diamond coupling spring, which enables the in-phase mode frequency to be 108.3% higher than the anti-phase one. The frequencies of the in- and anti-phase modes in the sense direction are 9799.6 Hz and 4705.3 Hz, respectively. The analytical solutions illustrate that the stiffness difference ratio of the in- and anti-phase modes is inversely proportional to the output induced by the vibration from the sense direction. Additionally, FEM simulations demonstrate that the stiffness difference ratio of the anchored diamond coupling TFG is 16.08 times larger than the direct coupling one while the vibration output is reduced by 94.1%. Consequently, the proposed new anchored diamond coupling TFG can structurally increase the stiffness difference ratio to improve the mode ordering and considerably reduce the vibration sensitivity without sacrificing the scale factor.