In the U.S., there are over 4 million miles (6 million km) of roadways and more than 250 million registered vehicles. The energy lost in the pavement system due to traffic-induced vibration and deformation is enormous. If effectively harvested, such energy can serve as an alternative sustainable energy source that can be easily integrated to the transportation system. The potential of PVDF, which is a piezoelectric polymer material, is investigated as a potential energy harvester integrated in pavement systems. The uniqueness of this study lies in that the electrical response of PVDF under coupled mechanical and thermal stimulations are studied. It is well known that most piezoelectric materials are also pyroelectric materials, which convert temperature change into electricity. However, the potential of PVDF as a hybrid piezo-pyroelectric energy harvester has been seldom studied. Through series of well controlled experiments, it is found that there exists interesting coupling phenomenon between piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects of PVDF: the voltage generated by simultaneous mechanical and thermal stimulations is the sum of voltages generated by separate stimulations. In addition, an estimation of power generation through piezoelectric and pyroelectric effect is conducted. Finally, the overall effects of temperature on hybrid piezo-pyroelectric energy harvesting are discussed.
A novel hair flow sensor is designed inspired by the superficial neuromasts in the lateral line system of fish. The
transduction element of the hair sensor is a piezoelectric fiber with a pair of electrodes on the surface of the fiber. An
innovative approach is proposed to adapt the frequency response of the sensor, by connecting the sensor to a shunt
circuit. The effect of the circuit components (resistor and inductor) is studied by solving the fully coupled mechanoelectrical-
circuit system.
This paper describes the efforts toward the development of bio-inspired flow and acoustic
sensor from fish. Anatomy study has indicated a basic transduction element is the hairy
structure. This study describes the fabrication of sensing element that emulate the
mechano-electrical transduction mechanism. These include the use of advanced
lithographic technology for sensor electrode deposition. The sensor was polarized under
high voltage gradient. Preliminary experimental evaluation indicates that the hairy
structures are responsive to external excitations. Especially, the hairy structure made of
the SDW method not only produces transduction component for mechano-electrical
coupling, it is also rugged, sensitive and fracture resistant. The hairy structure also
features directional sensitivity which could be used for acoustic field direction
determination. The hairy structure is being further refined and will ultimately be
integrated into develop bio-inspired flow and acoustic sensors.
KEYWORDS: Thermoelectric materials, Sensors, Power supplies, Chemical elements, Civil engineering, Roads, Wind energy, Energy efficiency, Energy harvesting, Temperature metrology
The aging infrastructure requires a proactive strategy to ensure their functionality and
performance. Innovative sensors are needed to develop infrastructures that are intelligent
and adaptive. A power supply strategy is among the crucial components to reduce the
instrument cost and to ensure the long term function of these embedded sensors. This
paper introduces the results of a preliminary study on using thermo-electricity generation
to power sensors. This presents an innovative strategy for long term monitoring of
pavement performance.
Accurate measurement of the turbulent flow is an important step toward understanding the mechanisms of
many unknown phenomena. Turbulence generally can not be easily measured without significantly
disturbing the original flow conditions. This paper introduces the efforts that aim to develop a bio-inspired
sensor for monitoring turbulent flow. The sensor will consist of an array of micro-pillars or nano-pillars.
Piezoelectric elements serve as transductors, which provides a key sensing element in the construction of
micro-pillar. A prototype design was fabricated for the micropillar. The performance of sensing principle
by this micropillar was evaluated and was found to be sensitive. The micropillar will be further refined into
sensing arrays for real time sensing of flow turbulence.
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