An experimental and theoretical electromechanical characterization of beam-like, uniform cross-section, unimorph structures employing single crystal piezoelectrics is presented. The purpose of the research is to understand and compare the actuation capabilities of several piezoelectric materials and substrate configurations so that optimal design choices can be employed in lightweight, low powe...

The performance of vibration power generation using the inverse magnetostrictive effect increases with increasing its device size. In this study, grain-oriented electrical steel that can be largely produced was investigated as a core material, U-shaped unimorph at laboratory scale. (16 mm long 1.4 mm2 cross-section) rolling direction (RD) along stress exhibited effective open-circuit voltage 0....

Abstract: Electromechanical coupling defines the ratio of electrical and mechanical energy exchanged during a flexure cycle of a piezoelectric actuator. This paper presents an analysis of the dynamic electromechanical coupling factor (dynamic EMCF) for cantilever based piezoelectric actuators and provides for the first time explicit expressions for calculation of dynamic EMCF based on arrangeme...

This paper presents a review of MEMS based piezoelectric energy harvesting for low frequency and low power applications. An introduction to MEMS and its components along with the concept of energy harvesting is presented. The paper also presents a device configuration of cantilever based basic components of MEMS energy harvesters, i.e. unimorph, bimorph. Results of different designs for MEMS en...

A 2 DOF resonant thorax structure has been designed and fabricated for the MFI project. Miniature piezoelectric PZN-PT unimorph actuators were fabricated and used to drive a four-bar transmission mechanism. The current thorax design utilizes two actuated four-bars and a spherical joint to drive a rigid wing. Rotationally compliant flexure joints have been tested with lifetimes over 10 cycles. W...