Computers and their constituent electronics continue to shrink. The same amount of work can be done with increasingly smaller and cheaper components that need less power to function than before. In wireless sensor networks, the energy needed by one sensor node borders the amount that is already present in its immediate surroundings. Equipping the electronics with a micro generator or energy harvester gives the possibility that it can become self-sufficient in energy. In this thesis two kinds of energy harvesters are investigated. One absorbs vibrations and converts them into electricity by means of piezo-electricity. The other converts heat flow through a semiconductor to electricity, utilizing a thermoelectric effect. Principles governing the performance, actual performance of off-the-shelf components and design considerations of the energy harvester have been treated. The thermoelectric micro generator has been measured to output power at 2.7 mW and 20°C with a load of 10 W. The piezoelectric micro generator has been measured to output power at 2.3 mW at 56.1 Hz, with a mechanical trim weight and a load of 565 W. In these conditions the power density of the generators lies between 2-3 W/m2.

Nagrinėjama pjezoelektrinės pavaros pozicionavimo tikslumas ir pjezoelemento suveikimo laikas. Aprašomas tiriamas objektas, jo valdymo įrenginiai ir bandymams naudojama aparatūra. Aptariami atliktų bandymų rezultatai. Pateikiamos išvados ir rekomendacijos. / The piezoelectric drive positioning accuracy and the piezo element play time are analyzed in the paper. The investigated object, its control and equipment for testing are described. Experimentation results are analyzed. Conclusion and recommendations are given.

Pjezoelektrinių savybių turinčios medžiagos mechaninį poveikį paverčia elektriniu impulsu (ir atvirkščiai). Įrengimai su šiomis medžiagomis yra kompaktiškesni, jautresni valdymui, jų didesnis naudingumo koeficientas, be to jos nereikalauja ypatingos priežiūros eksploataciniu laikotarpiu. Bet kaip ir visuose mechanizmuose taip ir pjezoelektrinėse porose vyksta dilimas, kuris ardo medžiagos paviršių ir sutrumpina įrenginio darbingumo laiką. Tyrimams atlikti suprojektavome ir pagaminome badymų stendą. Dilimo bandymus atlikome su keleto skirtingo kietumo plieninių medžiagų: HRB 85, HRB 14. Tyrimų metu nustatėme, kad iš negrūdinto plieno (HRB 45), pagamintas bandinys sukuria 30 % didesnę sukimo momento jėgą, nei iš anglinio plieno (HRB 85). Bet jo paviršius 3,5 karto greičiau nudyla, stipriai sumažėja bandinio greitis ir sukimo momentas. / The material with piezoelectric effect transforms mechanical motion into electric impulse (and vice versa). The devices are more compact, sensible to control, having higher coefficient of efficiency and it does not require any special attention for a period of exploitation than other devices. Usually in these kind of devices the process of wane causes the disruption to the surface of the material and piezoelectric mechanism in not an exception. In order to do the research, the stand for samples has been projected and made. Several different substances were used: no temper steel (HRB 85), carbonaceous steel (HRB 45). It was found out that the sample made of steel (HRB 45) creates 30 % bigger power of turning point than created with HRB 85. However, its surface frays 3,5 times faster, the speed of the sample and its turning point slow down.

Refiners are used in the pulp and paper industry to separate wood chips into individual fibres and to develop the morphology of fibres to be suitable for the type and grade of paper to be produced. Within a refiner are discs, at least one of which rotates at high speed and all of which are lined with radial patterns of bars on their opposing surfaces. As the chips and fibres are accelerated through the refiner, compressive and shear forces are applied to them by the bars as the opposed discs cross each other. Experiments have shown that the contact mechanics of bar-crossings are a significant factor in the development of fibre properties. To investigate the contact mechanics in operating refiners, a prototype piezoelectric-based sensor was developed to measure the forces applied by the bars. This work re-designs the prototype sensor to function at the mill-scale, and validates the design in two trials. Performance during these trials is presented along with an in-depth analysis of the recorded data. Arrays of force sensors were installed in two single-disc refiners: a pilot-scale machine operating as a primary stage, and a mill-scale machine operating as a rejects stage. In the rejects refiner, mean forces were highest at the periphery of the refining zone, while in the primary stage, mean forces were higher at the sensor closest to the refiner axis. Higher coefficients of friction were measured in the primary stage refiner, which also showed less active bar-crossings. Distributions of peak force values were generated for a range of standard operating conditions. Primary stage refining showed near decreasing exponential distributions, while rejects refining showed skewed normal distributions. These results indicate a fundamental difference in the behavior of these refiners, which is explained in terms of the processing stage of the wood fibre and scale of the refiner. Past laboratory experiments in a single-bar refiner have shown that pulp consistency can greatly affect the contact mechanics of bar-crossing impacts. The effect was observed as a positive correlation between the coefficient of friction and the mass fraction of fibre in the stock, known as the consistency. In the present work, a similar correlation was found in the primary stage refiner, but only in the sensor closest to the refiner axis. No significant changes in the coefficient of friction were observed in the rejects refiner; however, only a small range of consistencies was tested. These initial findings suggest relationships found in past laboratory tests may translate to larger-scale equipment. The clashing of plates during refining accelerates bar wear, and delays production. An investigation of the ability of the sensor to predict plate clash was conducted. The force sensors consistently provided advanced warning of a clash event, many seconds before the accelerometer-based plate protection system currently in use by the mill. A sensitivity study showed that the new system was able to outperform the accelerometer system over a range of detection settings, and that the accelerometer could not be tuned to match the performance of the new system.

Orientador: Carlos Alberto dos Reis Filho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T09:10:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nadalin_EvertonZaccaria_M.pdf: 2191420 bytes, checksum: 38decb6d182261bd5e5fc2df03ad1b9a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho está relacionado com o problema da pesagem de um bovino criado em campo aberto, não confinado, destinado ao corte. O conhecimento da evolução contínua do peso do animal é de grande importância neste ramo de negócios e uma solução tecnicamente satisfatória, de custo aceitável e de tecnologia proprietária, certamente representa uma significativa contribuição ao Brasil. Uma solução idealizada, que é a meta maior do projeto em que este trabalho se enquadra, prevê o uso de um dispositivo instalado nas patas do animal, contendo um sensor de pressão ou de impacto e uma unidade eletrônica local que condiciona, digitaliza e armazena os sinais do sensor. Além disto, a unidade eletrônica transmite estes dados através de uma rede de comunicação de dados sem fio e de baixo consumo de energia para centrais de coleta e processamento estrategicamente situadas na área em que o gado se desenvolve. Tal sistema viabiliza, deste modo, acumular no tempo as informações de cada pisada de cada animal. O sinal produzido por um sensor em conseqüência do impacto de cada pisada é influenciado por diversos parâmetros, dentre os quais o peso do animal. Sendo assim, é impossível estabelecer uma relação direta e exclusiva entre o sinal do sensor e o peso. Entretanto, os valores acumulados destes sinais descrevem uma função de múltiplas variáveis que pode ser tratada juntamente com algumas informações complementares sobre o ambiente, buscando-se o isolamento da variável peso. Para isto, uma abordagem adequada prevê o desenvolvimento ou adoção de um modelo do mecanismo de movimentação do animal e o tratamento numérico dos dados acumulados aplicando filtragens e buscas de correlações. Trata-se, portanto, de uma solução de natureza multidisciplinar, que exige uma aliança de conhecimentos complementares para a sua realização. Coube ao presente trabalho, desenvolvido no âmbito da engenharia eletrônica, a implementação de uma etapa preliminar e necessária que consiste de um sistema de caracterização de pisadas constituído de um conjunto de sensores piezoelétricos, uma interface que permite a transferência dos dados destes sensores a um computador e um ambiente de software através do qual foram testados algoritmos para a verificação de correlação entre os sinais associados às pisadas e o peso do agente. São frutos deste trabalho um sistema de coleta automática dos sinais de pisadas, que permitiu a captura de sinais com sensores instalados tanto numa plataforma fixa como num sapato tênis, e um estudo comparativo dos resultados obtidos de tratamentos numéricos distintos aplicados aos dados experimentais / Abstract: This work deals with the problem of weighting non-confined cattle raised in open field for meat production. The knowledge of the continuous weight change of the animal is of great importance in this business field. Therefore, a technically satisfactory solution, with acceptable price and customized technology, certainly represents a significant contribution to Brazil. The idealized solution, which is the major goal to be pursued by the project in which this work takes part, considers the use of a device placed into the animal¿s hooves. It would contain a pressure or impact sensor and a local electronic unit, which conditions, digitizes and stores the signals received from the sensor. The electronic unit also transmits this data through a low-energy wireless communication network to reception and processing stations placed strategically around the area where the cattle raises. Such a system enables accumulating data about the steps of each animal throughout time. Several parameters, including the animal¿s weight, influence the signal produced by a sensor as a consequence to the impact of a step. Therefore, it is impossible to establish a direct and exclusive relation between the signal given by the sensor and the weight. Nevertheless, the accumulated data of these signals describe a multiple variable function that can be treated together with some complementary information about the environment, seeking the isolation of the weight variable. An adequate approach predicts the development or use of a model of the animal¿s locomotion mechanism and the numeric treatment of the accumulated data by applying filtering and seeking correlations. The multidisciplinary nature of this solution demands an alliance of complementary knowledge for its accomplishment. This work, developed in the scope of electrical engineering, implemented a necessary and preliminary stage that consists of: a step characterization system, made of a set of piezoelectric sensors, an interface that allows transferring data from the sensors to a computer and a software environment, in which algorithms were tested to verify the correlation between the signals associated to the steps and the agent¿s weight. The main result of this work are a system that performs automatic collecting of steps, which allowed the capture of the signals with sensors installed both on a fixed platform and inside tennis shoes, and the comparative study of the results of different numerical treatments applied to the experimental data / Mestrado / Eletrônica, Microeletrônica e Optoeletrônica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Masters of Science / This research investigates the creation of an audio-shape recognition system that is able to interpret a user’s drawn audio shapes—fundamental shapes, digits and/or letters— on a given surface such as a table-top using a generic stylus such as the back of a pen. The system aims to make use of one, two or three Piezo microphones, as required, to capture the sound of the audio gestures, and a combination of the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) feature descriptor and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to recognise audio shapes. The novelty of the system is in the use of piezo microphones which are low cost, light-weight and portable, and the main investigation is around determining whether these microphones are able to provide sufficiently rich information to recognise the audio shapes mentioned in such a framework.

This diploma thesis deals with the possibility of vibration sensing and vibrodiagnostics based on the use of so-called "SMART" materials such as piezoelectric layers or structures. Research studies have examined the general overview of vibrodiagnostic methods and their analysis of the possibility of sensing vibration by piezoelectric structures. This was followed by measuring and evaluating the results using various vibro-diagnostic methods. The results were compared with those obtained by sensing vibration using an accelerometer. We also dealt with the problem of detecting the deformation of the device by sensing vibration with piezoelectric structures. The last part was programming the "Myrio" to capture and evaluate the vibration using Labview.

This diploma thesis deals with the application of three methods to limit resonances of critical frequencies and with a description of their influence on speed control loop of linear drive. The first damping method involved the use of an electro-magnetic tilger attached to the structure of stand on critical locations. The second method involved the use of a jerk decoupling in linear direct drives. A Cauer-filter that was activated in the controller of linear motor was added to both methods. The appropriate measuring technique for these frequencies was systematically analysed and selected. Further in this document models of mechanical structure and controlling are described. Matlab®/Simulink® software was used for the data processing and the modification of models according to the real structure.

This Master’s Thesis introducing active preload control of machine tool head supported by a company TOSHULIN, a.s. It presents a way of creating models from rigid body models to flexible bodies and finally to multi-body systems with control loop. The goal of this thesis is create active preload control using a piezo-stack system for simplified linear model of ma-chine tool head.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第24637号 / 工博第5143号 / 新制||工||1982(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科合成・生物化学専攻 / (主査)教授 森 泰生, 教授 浜地 格, 教授 跡見 晴幸 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DGAM