Energy harvesting and vibration control using piezoelectric elements and a nonlinear approach

The piezoelectric materials, as the most widely used functional materials in smart structures, have many outstanding advantages for sensors and actuators, especially in vibration control and energy harvesting, because of their excellent mechanical-electrical coupling characteristics and frequency response characteristics. Semi-active vibration control based on state switching and pulse switching, have been receiving much attention over the past decade because of several advantages. The technique is based on a nonlinear processing of the voltage delivered by the piezoelectric elements. This process increases the amount of electrically converted energy during a mechanical loading cycle of the piezoelectric element. A new approach for energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations is also derived from the nonlinear approach based on Synchronized Switch Damping. The present research activities of vibration control and energy harvesting using piezoelectric elements and a nonlinear approach are introduced.