%0 Journal Article
%T Power Harvesting Capabilities of SHM Ultrasonic Sensors
%A Christophe Delebarre
%A Thomas Sainthuile
%A S¨¦bastien Grondel
%A Christophe Paget
%J Smart Materials Research
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/387638
%X The aim of this work is to show that classical Structural Health Monitoring ultrasonic sensors may provide some power harvesting capabilities from a wide variety of vibration sources. In other words, the authors developed an integrated piezoelectric energy harvesting sensor capable of operating a dual mode, that is, carrying out vibration power harvesting and Structural Health Monitoring. First, vibrations signals of an A380 aircraft recorded during different phases of flight are presented to show the need of a wideband piezoelectric energy harvester. Then, the voltage response of a piezoelectric power harvester bonded onto an aluminium cantilever plate and excited by an electromechanical shaker is measured. A finite element model of the energy harvester system is also presented. This model provides the voltage response of the harvester due to a mechanical excitation of the host structure and allows a better understanding of the energy harvesting process. In many cases, a good agreement with the experimental results is obtained. A power measurement also showed the ability of piezoelectric SHM sensors to harvest power over an extended frequency range present in spectra collected in aircrafts. This result could lead to numerous applications even though this kind of power harvester sensor has been initially designed to operate onboard aircrafts. 1. Introduction Energy harvesting, or scavenging as it is frequently called, provides new opportunities for sensor manufacturers in applications that would otherwise have difficulty obtaining a reliable power source. Adding a power source implies the need for replacements as well as maintenance procedures involving costs increase. Various techniques exist in order to carry out energy harvesting. They are based on light or temperature difference [1], radio frequency [2], inductive coupling, wind energy [3], and mechanical vibration conversion [4¨C8]. For these purposes, several pieces of equipments are used, such as MicroPelletier, wind turbine, RF energy converter, solar panel, and piezoelectric sensors. In this paper, the authors study the feasibility of developing a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system having a double functionality, that is, carrying out SHM tasks but also energy harvesting in order to be fully autonomous. This SHM system has been initially built to perform damage assessment of aeronautic structures using well-known techniques like the Selective Lamb Mode Technique [9], Acoustic Emission Monitoring [10, 11], and Lamb waves interaction [12, 13]. Consequently, the energy harvesting technology
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/smr/2012/387638/