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The frequencies of ambient vibrations are often low (below 30 Hz). A broadband (3 dB bandwidth is larger than 10 Hz at an acceleration amplitude of 9.81 m s(-2)) vibration based energy harvester is proposed for transducing mechanical energy at such low frequencies into electrical energy. The mechanical setup converts low frequency mechanical vibrations into high frequency resonance oscillations of the transducer. This conversion is done by mechanical impacts on two mechanical stoppers. The originality of the presented design is that both low-frequency and high-frequency oscillators are permanently mechanically coupled. In the equivalent mechanical circuit, this coupling is achieved by connecting the ends of the stiff spring to both seismic masses, whereas one seismic mass (collison member) is also attached to the soft spring used as the constitutive element of a low-frequency oscillator. Further, both mechanical oscillators are not realized as conventional cantilever beams. In particular, the high frequency oscillator with the natural frequency of 340 Hz is a disc-shaped diaphragm with attached piezoelectric elements and a seismic mass. It is shown that it is possible to convert mechanical vibrations with acceleration amplitude of 9.81 m s(-2) in the region between approximately 7 and 25 Hz into electrical power larger than 0.1 mW with the maximum value of 0.8 mW. A simplified mathematical model based on piecewise linear coupled oscillators shows good agreement with experimental results. The ways to enhance the performance of the harvester and improve agreement with experiments are discussed.
Magnetodielectric properties of magnetoactive elastomers comprising micrometer-sized iron particles dispersed in compliant elastomer matrices are experimentally studied in stepwise time-varying dc magnetic fields. It is found that imposition of magnetic field significantly increases both the effective lossless permittivity of these composite materials as well as their effective conductivity. These magnetodielectric effects are more pronounced for larger concentrations of soft-magnetic filler particles and softer elastomer matrices. The largest observed relative change of the effective dielectric constant in the maximum magnetic field of 0.57 T is of the order of 1000%. The largest observed absolute change of the loss tangent is approximately 0.8. The transient response of the magnetodielectric effect to a step magnetic-field excitation can be rather complex. It changes from a simple monotonic growth with time for small magnetic-field steps (<0.1 T) to a non-monotonic behavior with a significant rapidly appearing overshoot for large magnetic-field steps (>0.3 T). The settling time to the magnetic-field step excitation can reach roughly 1000 s and it depends on the applied magnetic field and sample composition. There is also significant hysteresis of the magnetodielectric effect on the externally applied magnetic field. These findings are attributed to the rearrangement of ferromagnetic filler particles in external magnetic fields. The results will be useful for understanding and predicting the transient behavior of magnetoactive elastomers in applications where the control magnetic field is time dependent. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The dynamic shear modulus of magnetoactive elastomers containing 70 and 80 mass % of carbonyl iron microparticles is measured as a function of strain amplitude via dynamic torsion oscillations in various magnetic fields. The results are presented in terms of the mechanical energy density and considered in the framework of the conventional Kraus model. The form exponent of the Kraus model is further related to a physical model of Huber et al. [Huber et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 8, 409 (1996)] that uses a realistic representation for the cluster network possessing fractal structure. Two mechanical loading regimes are identified. At small strain amplitudes the exponent beta of the Kraus model changes in an externally applied magnetic field due to rearrangement of ferromagnetic-filler particles, while at large strain amplitudes, the exponent beta seems to be independent of the magnetic field. The critical mechanical energy characterizing the transition between these two regimes grows with the increasing magnetic field. Similarities between agglomeration and deagglomeration of magnetic filler under simultaneously applied magnetic field and mechanical shear and the concept of jamming transition are discussed. It is proposed that the magnetic field should be considered as an additional parameter to the jamming phase diagram of rubbers filled with magnetic particles.
The dependence of the resonant direct magnetoelectric effect on temperature is studied experimentally in planar composite structures. Samples of rectangular shapes with dimensions of 5 mm x 20 mm employed ferromagnetic layers of either an amorphous (metallic glass) alloy or nickel with a thickness of 20-200 m and piezoelectric layers of single crystalline langatate material or lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramics with a thickness of 500 m. The temperature of the samples was varied in a range between 120 and 390 K by blowing a gaseous nitrogen stream around them. It is shown that the effective characteristics of the magnetoelectric effectsuch as the mechanical resonance frequency f(r), the quality factor Q and the magnitude of the magnetoelectric coefficient (E) at the resonance frequencyare contingent on temperature. The interrelations between the temperature changes of the characteristics of the magnetoelectric effect and the temperature variations of the following material parametersYoung's modulus Y, the acoustic quality factor of individual layers, the dielectric constant epsilon, the piezoelectric modulus d of the piezoelectric layer as well as the piezomagnetic coefficients ((n)) of the ferromagnetic layerare established. The effect of temperature on the characteristics of the nonlinear magnetoelectric effect is observed for the first time. The results can be useful for designing magnetoelectric heterostructures with specified temperature characteristics, in particular, for the development of thermally stabilized magnetoelectric devices.
Wireless sensor networks usually rely on internal permanent or rechargeable batteries as a power supply, causing high maintenance efforts. An alternative solution is to supply the entire system by harvesting the ambient energy, for example, by transducing ambient vibrations into electric energy by virtue of the piezoelectric effect. The purpose of this paper is to present a simple engineering approach for the bandwidth optimization of vibration energy harvesting systems comprising multiple piezoelectric cantilevers (PECs). The frequency tuning of a particular cantilever is achieved by changing the tip mass. It is shown that the bandwidth enhancement by mass tuning is limited and requires several PECs with close resonance frequencies. At a fixed frequency detuning between subsequent PECs, the achievable bandwidth shows a saturation behavior as a function of the number of cantilevers used. Since the resonance frequency of each PEC is different, the output voltages at a particular excitation frequency have different amplitudes and phases. A simple power-transfer circuit where several PECs with an individual full wave bridge rectifier are connected in parallel allows one to extract the electrical power close to the theoretical maximum excluding the diode losses. The experiments performed on two- and three-PEC arrays show reasonable agreement with simulations and demonstrate that this power-transfer circuit additionally influences the frequency dependence of the harvested electrical power.
The influence of an external magnetic field on the static shear strain and the effective shear modulus of a magnetoactive elastomer (MAE) is studied theoretically in the framework of a recently introduced approach to the single-particle magnetostriction mechanism [V. M. Kalita et al., Phys. Rev. E 93, 062503 (2016)]. The planar problem of magnetostriction in an MAE with magnetically soft inclusions in the form of a thin disk (platelet) having the magnetic anisotropy in the plane of this disk is solved analytically. An external magnetic field acts with torques on magnetic filler particles, creates mechanical stresses in the vicinity of inclusions, induces shear strain, and increases the effective shear modulus of these composite materials. It is shown that the largest effect of the magnetic field on the effective shear modulus should be expected in MAEs with soft elastomer matrices, where the shear modulus of the matrix is less than the magnetic anisotropy constant of inclusions. It is derived that the effective shear modulus is nonlinearly dependent on the external magnetic field and approaches the saturation value in magnetic fields exceeding the field of particle anisotropy. It is shown that model calculations of the effective shear modulus correspond to a phenomenological definition of effective elastic moduli and magnetoelastic coupling constants. The obtained theoretical results compare well with known experimental data. Determination of effective elastic coefficients in MAEs and their dependence on magnetic field is discussed. The concentration dependence of the effective shear modulus at higher filler concentrations has been estimated using the method of Pade approximants, which predicts that both the absolute and relative changes of the magnetic-field-dependent effective shear modulus will significantly increase with the growing concentration of filler particles.
Magnetoactive elastomers (MAE) based on soft silicone matrices, filled with various proportions of large diameter ( approximately 50 mu m) iron and small diameter ( approximately 0.5 mu m) magnetite particles are synthesized. Their rheological behavior in homogeneous magnetic fields up to 600 mT is studied in detail. The addition of small magnetite particles facilitates fabrication of uniformly distributed magnetic elastomer composites by preventing aggregation and sedimentation of large particles during curing. It is shown that using the proposed bimodal filler particles it is possible to tailor various magnetorheological (MR) properties which can be useful for different target applications. In particular, either absolute or relative magnetorheological effects can be tuned. The value of the damping factor as well as the range of deformation amplitudes for the linear viscoelastic regime can be chosen. The interdependencies between different MR properties of bimodal MAEs are considered. The results are discussed in the model framework of particle network formation under the simultaneous influence of external magnetic fields and mechanical deformation.