Zhang Yunshun, Zheng Rencheng, Shimono Keisuke, Kaizuka Tsutomu, Nakano Kimihiko
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16, Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan.
Sensors (Basel). 2016 Oct 17;16(10):1727. doi: 10.3390/s16101727.
The collection of clean power from ambient vibrations is considered a promising method for energy harvesting. For the case of wheel rotation, the present study investigates the effectiveness of a piezoelectric energy harvester, with the application of stochastic resonance to optimize the efficiency of energy harvesting. It is hypothesized that when the wheel rotates at variable speeds, the energy harvester is subjected to on-road noise as ambient excitations and a tangentially acting gravity force as a periodic modulation force, which can stimulate stochastic resonance. The energy harvester was miniaturized with a bistable cantilever structure, and the on-road noise was measured for the implementation of a vibrator in an experimental setting. A validation experiment revealed that the harvesting system was optimized to capture power that was approximately 12 times that captured under only on-road noise excitation and 50 times that captured under only the periodic gravity force. Moreover, the investigation of up-sweep excitations with increasing rotational frequency confirmed that stochastic resonance is effective in optimizing the performance of the energy harvester, with a certain bandwidth of vehicle speeds. An actual-vehicle experiment validates that the prototype harvester using stochastic resonance is capable of improving power generation performance for practical tire application.
从环境振动中收集清洁能源被认为是一种很有前景的能量收集方法。对于车轮旋转的情况，本研究调查了一种压电能量收集器的有效性，并应用随机共振来优化能量收集效率。假设当车轮以可变速度旋转时，能量收集器会受到道路噪声作为环境激励以及切向作用的重力作为周期性调制力的作用，这会激发随机共振。能量收集器采用双稳态悬臂结构进行了小型化设计，并在实验环境中测量了道路噪声以实现振动器的功能。一项验证实验表明，该收集系统经过优化后能够捕获的功率约为仅在道路噪声激励下捕获功率的12倍，以及仅在周期性重力作用下捕获功率的50倍。此外，对随着旋转频率增加的上扫频激励的研究证实，在一定车速带宽内，随机共振对于优化能量收集器的性能是有效的。实际车辆实验验证了使用随机共振的原型收集器能够提高实际轮胎应用中的发电性能。
