Shashank Priya

Energy Harvesting Technologies

Energy Harvesting Technologies provides a cohesive overview of the fundamentals and current developments in the field of energy harvesting. In a well-organized structure, this volume discusses basic principles for the design and fabrication of bulk and MEMS based vibration energy systems, theory and design rules required for fabrication of efficient electronics, in addition to recent findings in thermoelectric energy harvesting systems. Combining leading research from both academia and industry onto a single platform, Energy Harvesting Technologies serves as an important reference for researchers and engineers involved with power sources, sensor networks and smart materials.

Magnetoelectric effect in composites of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric materials

In the past few decades, extensive research has been conducted on the magnetoelectric (ME) effect in single phase and composite materials. Dielectric polarization of a material under a magnetic field or an induced magnetization under an electric field requires the simultaneous presence of long-range ordering of magnetic moments and electric dipoles. Single phase materials suffer from the drawback that the ME effect is considerably weak even at low temperatures, limiting their applicability in practical devices. Better alternatives are ME composites that have large magnitudes of the ME voltage coefficient. The composites exploit the product property of the materials. The ME effect can be realized using composites consisting of individual piezomagnetic and piezoelectric phases or individual magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases. In the past few years, our group has done extensive research on ME materials for magnetic field sensing applications and current measurement probes for high-power electric transmission systems. In this review article, we mainly emphasize our investigations of ME particulate composites and laminate composites and summarize the important results. The data reported in the literature are also compared for clarity. Based on these results, we establish the fact that magnetoelectric laminate composites (MLCs) made from the giant magnetostrictive material, Terfenol-D, and relaxor-based piezocrystals are far superior to the other contenders. The large ME voltage coefficient in MLCs was obtained because of the high piezoelectric voltage coefficient of the piezocrystals and large elastic compliances. In addition, an optimized thickness ratio between the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive phases and the direction of the magnetostriction also influence the magnitude of the ME coefficient.

Modeling of electric energy harvesting using piezoelectric windmill

This letter reports a theoretical model for determination of generated electric power from piezoelectric bimorph transducers in low frequency range far from the piezoelectric resonance. The model is divided into two parts. In the first part the open circuit voltage response of the transducer under the ac stress is computed based on the bending beam theory for bimorph. In the second part, this open circuit voltage acts as the input to the equivalent circuit of the capacitor connected across a pure resistive load. The results of the theoretical model were verified by comparing it with the measured response of a prototype windmill. The prototype piezoelectric windmill consisting of ten piezoelectric bimorph transducers was operated in the wind speed of 1–12 mph. A power of 7.5 mW at the wind speed of 10 mph was measured across a matching load of 6.7kΩ. The theoretical model was found to give very accurate prediction of the generated power and matching load and an excellent matching was found with the experim...

Origin of J-V Hysteresis in Perovskite Solar Cells.

High-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on organometal halide perovskite have emerged in the past five years as excellent devices for harvesting solar energy. Some remaining challenges should be resolved to continue the momentum in their development. The photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) responses of the PSCs demonstrate anomalous dependence on the voltage scan direction/rate/range, voltage conditioning history, and device configuration. The hysteretic J-V behavior presents a challenge for determining the accurate power conversion efficiency of the PSCs. Here, we review the recent progress on the investigation of the origin(s) of J-V hysteresis behavior in PSCs. We discuss the impact of slow transient capacitive current, trapping and detrapping process, ion migrations, and ferroelectric polarization on the hysteresis behavior. The remaining issues and future research required toward the understanding of J-V hysteresis in PSCs will also be discussed.

Dark Matter Search Results from the PICO-2L C3F8 Bubble Chamber

New data are reported from the operation of a 2 liter C3F8 bubble chamber in the SNOLAB underground laboratory, with a total exposure of 211.5 kg days at four different energy thresholds below 10 keV. These data show that C3F8 provides excellent electron-recoil and alpha rejection capabilities at very low thresholds. The chamber exhibits an electron-recoil sensitivity of <3.5×10(-10) and an alpha rejection factor of >98.2%. These data also include the first observation of a dependence of acoustic signal on alpha energy. Twelve single nuclear recoil event candidates were observed during the run. The candidate events exhibit timing characteristics that are not consistent with the hypothesis of a uniform time distribution, and no evidence for a dark matter signal is claimed. These data provide the most sensitive direct detection constraints on WIMP-proton spin-dependent scattering to date, with significant sensitivity at low WIMP masses for spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering.

Small scale windmill

In this letter the authors report experimental results on an optimized small scale piezoelectric windmill, which can solve the problems associated with autonomous sensor networks in outdoor, remote or inaccessible locations. The whole structure of the windmill is made of plastic, and it utilizes 18 piezoelectric bimorphs which makes this design extremely cost effective. The windmill was tested at average wind speed of 10miles∕h and it provided 5mW continuous power. The threshold wind speed for the windmill was found to be of the order of 5.4miles∕h. Further, the authors present analysis on two other windmill structures which illustrate the design parameters required for small scale windmill.

Impact of Capacitive Effect and Ion Migration on the Hysteretic Behavior of Perovskite Solar Cells.

In the past five years, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on organometal halide perovskite have exhibited extraordinary photovoltaic (PV) performance. However, the PV measurements of PSCs have been widely recognized to depend on voltage scanning condition (hysteretic current density-voltage [J-V] behavior), as well as on voltage treatment history. In this study, we find that varied PSC responses are attributable to two causes. First, capacitive effect associated with electrode polarization provides a slow transient non-steady-state photocurrent that modifies the J-V response. Second, modification of interfacial barriers induced by ion migration can modulate charge-collection efficiency so that it causes a pseudo-steady-state photocurrent, which changes according to previous voltage conditioning. Both phenomena are strongly influenced by ions accumulating at outer interfaces, but their electrical and PV effects are different. The time scale for decay of capacitive current is on the order of seconds, whereas the slow redistribution of mobile ions requires several minutes.

Multimodal energy harvesting system: Piezoelectric and electromagnetic

In this study, we report a multimodal energy harvesting device that combines electromagnetic and piezoelectric energy harvesting mechanism. The device consists of piezoelectric crystals bonded to a cantilever beam. The tip of the cantilever beam has an attached permanent magnet which, oscillates within a stationary coil fixed to the top of the package. The permanent magnet serves two purpose (i) acts as a tip mass for the cantilever beam and lowers the resonance frequency, and (ii) acts as a core which oscillates between the inductive coils resulting in electric current generation through Faradays effect. Thus, this design combines the energy harvesting from two different mechanisms, piezoelectric and electromagnetic, on the same platform. The prototype system was optimized using the finite element software, ANSYS, to find the resonance frequency and stress distribution. The power generated from the fabricated prototype was found to be 0.25 W using the electromagnetic mechanism and 0.25 mW using the piezoelectric mechanism at 35 g acceleration and 20 Hz frequency.

Multimodal system for harvesting magnetic and mechanical energy

In this letter, we investigate a multimodal system for simultaneous energy harvesting from stray magnetic and mechanical energies by combining magnetoelectric and piezoelectric effects. The system consists of a cantilever beam with tip mass and a magnetoelectric laminate attached in the center of the beam. At 2 Oe magnetic field and mechanical vibration amplitude of 50mg, both at frequency of 20 Hz, the system was found to generate open circuit output voltage of 8 VP.P.. An equivalent circuit model is proposed that predicts a summation effect for both mechanical and magnetic energies.

A biomimetic robotic jellyfish (Robojelly) actuated by shape memory alloy composite actuators

An analysis is conducted on the design, fabrication and performance of an underwater vehicle mimicking the propulsion mechanism and physical appearance of a medusa (jellyfish). The robotic jellyfish called Robojelly mimics the morphology and kinematics of the Aurelia aurita species. Robojelly actuates using bio-inspired shape memory alloy composite actuators. A systematic fabrication technique was developed to replicate the essential structural features of A. aurita. Robojellys body was fabricated from RTV silicone having a total mass of 242 g and bell diameter of 164 mm. Robojelly was able to generate enough thrust in static water conditions to propel itself and achieve a proficiency of 0.19 s(-1) while the A. aurita achieves a proficiency of around 0.25 s(-1). A thrust analysis based on empirical measurements for a natural jellyfish was used to compare the performance of the different robotic configurations. The configuration with best performance was a Robojelly with segmented bell and a passive flap structure. Robojelly was found to consume an average power on the order of 17 W with the actuators not having fully reached a thermal steady state.