MENU

Researchers develop self-resonant smart energy harvester

Researchers develop self-resonant smart energy harvester

Technology News |
By Jean-Pierre Joosting



The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has announced that Dr. Hyun-Cheol Song’s research team at the Electronic Materials Research Center has developed an autonomous resonance tuning (ART) piezoelectric energy harvester that autonomously adjusts its resonance according to the surrounding environment. The energy harvester can tune its own resonance over a broad bandwidth of more than 30 Hz, and convert the absorbed vibration energy into electrical energy.

Because the various vibrations we experience in our everyday settings have different ranges of frequency, the natural frequency of the harvester developed by the researchers adjusts to the environment in order to induce resonance, to maximise energy transfer. This makes this resonant energy harvester ideal for use with wireless sensors and the IoT, which ideally need independent power sources that are not restricted by batteries or power lines

Accordingly, the KIST research team developed a specially designed energy harvester that can tune itself to the surrounding frequency without a separate electrical device. When the energy harvester senses the vibration of the surroundings, an adaptive clamping system (tuning system) attached to the harvester modulates its frequency to the same frequency as the external vibration, thus enabling resonance. As a result, it was possible to quickly achieve resonant frequency tuning within 2 seconds, continuously generating electricity in a broad bandwidth of more than 30 Hz.

For the real-world validation of the ART function, this energy harvester equipped with a tuning system was mounted on a driving vehicle. Unlike piezoelectric energy harvesters that have been introduced in preceding studies, it successfully drove a wireless positioning device without a battery in an environment where the vibration frequency continuously changed. Dr. Song (KIST), who led this study, said, “This result suggests that energy harvesters using vibrations can be applied to our real life soon. It is expected to be applicable as an independent power source for wireless sensors, including the IOT, in the future.”

Image: Energy harvester structure and adaptive clamping system. Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202205179

If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :    eeNews on Google News

Share:

Linked Articles
10s