Towards and embeddable structural health monitoring sensor : design and optimization of MEMS piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters

Wireless structural health monitoring (SHM) has gained considerable interest as a potential method of reducing aircraft maintenance costs while increasing safety. Distributed power supplies for the sensing nodes are needed for a practical implementation of this technique. Vibrational energy harvesting using MEMS piezoelectric resonant devices is an appealing solution to this challenge due to their relatively high potential for power generation (compared to other harvesting techniques) and capacity to be integrated into the microfabrication procedure of the remainder of the SHM node. A comprehensive review of energy harvesting devices, particularly piezoelectric harvesters, is presented, including characterization of previous devices in terms of key power performance metrics. An existing coupled electromechanical model is presented and modified for use in optimization studies with both {3-1} Mode and {3-3} Mode piezoelectric cantilevered beam configurations. The modified model accurately represents published experimental results. A series of design optimization studies is presented for four devices operating in an aircraft vibration environment.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Mracek, Anna Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brian L. Wardle.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35569

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35569