Magnetoelectric (ME) effect, a cross-coupling effect between magnetic and electric orders, has stimulated lots of investigations due to the potential for applications as multifunctional devices. In this thesis, I have investigated and optimized the ME effect in Metglas/piezo-fibers ME composites with a multi-push pull configuration. Moreover, I have also proposed several devices based on such composites. In this thesis, several methods for ME composites optimization have been investigated. (i)  the ME coefficients can be enhanced greatly by using single crystal fibers with high piezoelectric properties; (ii) the influence of volume ratio between Metglas and piezo-fibers on ME coefficients has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. Modulating the volume ratio can increase the ME coefficient greatly; and (iii) the annealing process can change the properties of Metglas, which can enhance the ME response as well. Moreover, one differential structure for ME composites has been proposed, which can reject the external vibration noise by a factor of 10 to 20 dB. This differential structure may allow for practical applications of such sensors in real-world environments. Based on optimized ME composites, two types of AC magnetic sensor have been developed. The objective is to develop one alternative type of magnetic sensor with low noise, low cost and room-temperature operation; that makes the sensor competitive with the commercially available magnetic sensor, such as Fluxgate, GMR, SQUID, etc. Conventional passive sensors have been fully investigated, including the design of sensor working at specific frequency range, sensitivity, noise density characterization, etc. Furthermore, the extremely low frequency (< 10-3 Hz) magnetic sensor has undergone a redesign of the charge amplifier circuit. Additionally, the noise model has been established to simulate the noise density for this device which can predict the noise floor precisely. Based on theoretical noise analysis, the noise floor can be eliminated greatly. Moreover, another active magnetic senor based on nonlinear ME voltage coefficient is also developed. Such sensor is not required for external DC bias that can help the sensor for sensor arrays application. Inspired by the bio-behaviors in nature, the geomagnetic sensor is designed for sensing geomagnetic fields; it is also potentially used for positioning systems based on the geomagnetic field. In this section, some works for DC sensor optimization have been performed, including the different piezo-fibers, driving frequency and magnetic flux concentration. Meanwhile, the lock-in circuit is designed for the magnetic sensor to replace of the commercial instruments. Finally, the man-portable multi-axial geomagnetic sensor has been developed which has the highest resolution of 10 nT for DC magnetic field. Based on the geomagnetic sensor, some demonstrations have been finished, such as orientation monitor, magnetic field mapping, and geomagnetic sensing. Other devices have been also developed besides the magnetic sensor: (i) magnetic energy harvesters are developed under the resonant frequency condition. Especially, one 60 Hz magnetic harvester is designed which can harvester the magnetic energy source generated by instruments; and (ii) frequency multiplication tuned by geomagnetic field is investigated which potentially can be used for frequency multiplier or geomagnetic guidance devices. / Ph. D.

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The purpose of this study is to further understand the economic impact of the new on-board module-building cotton harvesters that both John Deere and Case IH have introduced to the market. This study will examine two different areas, the optimal asset replacement schedule and a machine’s performance rate’s effect on harvest costs due to rainfall loss. Using data collected from Willcut (2008), USDA crop progress reports, and a USDA weather station, models will be used to study the areas in question. The findings are that, the age of the associated assets begin replaced with the conventional harvester and the number of acres harvested a year have a clear impact on the replacement schedule. The second findings are that when weather conditions deteriorate later in the harvest season, the full benefits of a higher performance rate are seen when the new harvester is pushed to its full potential.

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MEMS structures utilizing the piezoelectric effect are used to fabricate a wide variation of sensingand actuating devices. The most common piezoelectric material for MEMS is PZT which has beenintensively investigated. In order to improve the performance of PZT and create materialsoptimized for specific applications, altered versions of PZT are being investigated. One way toalter the behavior of PZT is to introduce dopants. In this work, doped and non-doped PZT filmshave been fabricated using the sol-gel deposition process and the transverse piezoelectriccoefficient (e31) value of these films has been measured. Two types of dopants have been used tosee if these dopants could boost the e31 making the film more suitable for energy harvestingapplications. Furthermore processes alteration has been performed to increase the quality andthroughput of the PZT film fabricated at Silex Microsystems. The quality of the film could be seenby inspecting the level of non-uniform areas in regards to color and clarity of the film. The qualitywas improved and the color and clarity uniformity across the wafer was visibly improved. Thethroughput of the PZT deposition process was increased by ~33% by finding an alternative processrequiring fewer crystallization steps. One type of dopant gives an e31 increase of ~12% compared to the highest e31 value previously obtained at Silex Microsystems using non-doped PZT. / Piezoelektrisk MEMS används för att konstruera många olika sorters av sensorer och aktuatorer.Det piezoelektriska material som används mest frekvent inom MEMS är PZT, vilket har blivitintensivt undersökt. För att förbättra prestandan hos PZT och skapa material optimerade förspecifika applikationer, undersöks olika modifikationer av PZT. Ett sätt att modifiera egenskapernahos PZT är att introducera dopningsämnen. I detta arbete har filmer av dopad och odopad PZTtillverkats med en sol-gelprocess och e31-värdet hos dessa filmer har mätts. Två typer avdopningsämnen har använts för att se om ett högre e31-värde kunde nås vilket skulle göra filmenbättre för ”energy harvesting” tillämpningar. Dessutom har process-modifikationer gjorts för attförbättra sol-gel processen hos Silex Microsystems. Modifikationerna gjordes med målet attförbättra kvaliteten hos filmen och minska processtiden. Kvaliteten hos filmen kunde observerasgenom att se i vilken utsträckning filmen var uniform i färg och klarhet. Efter modifikationerna påprocessen så förbättrades både dessa aspekter. Färgskillnader kunde inte längre observeras påfilmen och klarheten ökade. Produktionstiden minskade med ~33% med hjälp av en stabilalternativ process som krävde färre kristalliseringssteg. Ett av dopningsämnena förbättrade e31-värdet med ~12% jämfört med det e31-värdet hos den odopade filmen tidigare skapad av SilexMicrosystems.

Ligna Energy has developed a printable battery, called S-Power. It is based on research in organic electronics. In order to demonstrate the functionality of the new batteries, an IoT device was developed. The demonstrator consisted of a Sensor for temperature and relative humidity (RH), LoRWAN communication and a circuit for energy harvesting. Photovoltaic cells from Epishine were used in order to be able to harvest energy in low light conditions. At an illuminance of 200 lux, the demonstrator was able to sample the temperature and RH and send it by radio communication every two minutes. If no light at all is available, the demonstrator can sample data and send it every 30 minutes for over 12 hours. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

With the development of the deforestation industry and the increased demand for sawn goods and woods over the world, created a need for more efficient harvesting methods, a need that was represented by mechanized harvesters and forwarders in forestry. These machines are efficient when it comes to mass production and can cut and delimb trees of all sizes and kinds. Still, these machines are large and heavy ,which causes high damage to the soil around the machinery. This causes ground disturbance. A new approach is to construct more specific light machines that are used to cut and delimb small trees without damaging the soil. The new harvester machine can minimize the use of the traditional big, mechanized harvesters. The project goal is to minimize the weight of the bearing structure of the harvester to increase the performance at the expense of robustness. In this master thesis, the biggest and heaviest bearing component is “the main plate” that carries most of the components is chosen to be optimized and remodeled. This master thesis is divided into two parts: ● The impact forces measurements created by delimbing. ● Optimization, redesign and material investigation to decrease the mass of the main plate. The first step was to design and manufacture a test rig, find an approach to measure the impact force, perform a structural test to 3 thicknesses of blades, execute the experiment and validate the results to estimate the maximum impact force. The measured forces are used to perform structural analysis, topology optimization and result validation using ANSYS, a new optimized model has been created from the optimization results using Solid Edge and a material investigation was performed using GRANTA CES EduPack. Finally, the mass of the main plate is reduced by 82% after the material removal and application of a new material alternative. / Med utvecklingen av avskogning industrin och den ökade efterfrågan på sågade gods och skogar över hela världen skapades ett behov för effektivare avverkningsmetoder. Detta behov representerades i mekaniserade skördare och skotare i skogsbruket. Dessa maskiner är effektiva när det gäller massproduktion och kan skära alla typer och storlekar av träd. Dock är dessa maskiner stora och tunga vilket orsakar stora skador på jorden runt maskinerna. Detta orsakar störningar i marken. Ett nytt tillvägagångssätt är att konstruera mer specifika lätta maskiner som används för att skära små träd utan att skada jorden. Den nya skördemaskinen kan minimera användningen av de traditionella stora, mekaniserade skördarna. Projektets syfte är att minimera vikten av skördarens bärande struktur för att öka prestandan på bekostnad av robusthet. I detta examensarbete är den största och tyngsta bärande strukturen huvudplattan som bär de flesta komponenterna vald för att optimeras och ommodelleras. Detta examensarbete är uppdelad i två delar: ● Mätning av slagkraft. ● Optimering, ommodellering och materialundersökning för att minska massan på huvudplattan. Det första steget var att konstruera och tillverka en testrigg, hitta en metod för att mäta slagkrafterna, utföra en strukturell provning till 3 tjocklekar på bladen, utföra experimentet och validera resultaten för att uppskatta den maximala slagkraften. De uppmätta krafterna används för att utföra strukturanalys, topologioptimering och resultatvalidering med ANSYS, en ny optimerad modell har skapats från optimeringsresultaten med Solid Edge och materialundersökning utfördes med GRANTA CES EduPack. Slutligen, massan av huvudplattan minskade med 82 % efter materialborttagning och applicering av ett nytt materialalternativ.

As human dependence on electronic devices grows, there is an emerging need on finding sustainable power sources for low power electronics and sensors. One of the promising possibilities in this space is the human body itself. Harvesting significant power from daily human activities will have a transformative effect on wearables and implantables. One of the main challenges in harvesting mechanical energy from human actions is to ensure that there is no effect on the body itself. For this reason, any intrusive mechanism will not have practical relevance. In this dissertation, novel non-intrusive energy harvesting technologies are investigated that can capture available energy from body, motion, and surroundings. Energy harvesting from the body is explored by developing a wrist-based thermoelectric harvester that can operate at low-temperature gradients. Energy harvesting from motion is investigated by creating a backpack and shoe sole. These devices passively store kinetic energy in a spring that is later released to a generator when it is not intrusive to the user kinematics. Lastly, energy harvesting from immediate surroundings is investigated by designing a two degree of freedom vibration absorber that is excited by electromagnetic fields found in common household appliances. These novel solutions are shown to provide consistent electrical power from wasted energy. Harvester designs are extensively modeled and optimized device architectures are manufactured and tested to quantify the relevant parameters such as output voltage and power density. / Doctor of Philosophy / Energy harvesting is the action to transform energy in the form of heat, relative motion, light, etc. into useful electrical energy. An example of an energy harvester is a solar cell which converts energy in the form of light to electricity. Our body consumes a considerable amount of energy to maintain our body temperature and achieve everyday movements, i.e., walking, jumping, etc. The purpose of this research was to fabricate, model and test wearable energy harvesters in the form of a backpack, a shoe sole, a watch, and a cantilever beam to charge mobile electronics on the go. Electrical energy is harvested from human motion by using the relative displacement between the human torso and a payload. Similarly, the ankle joint is used to produce electricity by using the relative rotation between the foot and shank. The difference in temperature between the ambient air and the human body is used to generate enough electricity to power a wrist watch. Finally, energy is harvested from everyday surroundings by using a cantilever beam which absorbs magnetic fields coming from power cords and able to power sensors.

Point absorber style marine energy harvesters have been investigated based on their structure, energy harvesting efficiency, and reliability along with costs. However, due to the continuously varying ocean conditions and climates, the system usually suffers low power output and reliability from low input and high Peak to Average Ratio (PAR). Therefore, a Mechanical Motion Rectifier (MMR) based point absorber is introduced in this thesis to promote the harvesting efficiency and reduce the PAR by unifying the input rotation, and allow disengagement inside the gearbox during low power output phase. A 1:20 scale full system was then designed, prototyped, and tested based on the MMR. The bench test results show that the proposed MMR based point absorber could improve the energy conversion efficiency by 10 percent, which brings feasibility to the implementation. Traditional Wave Energy Converter(WEC) can only harvest ocean waves while ocean current is also one of the significant energy sources widely existing in ocean. In order to further increase the energy harvesting efficiency, one individual energy input source shows its limits. A vast majority of places around the world tends to co-exist both marine waves and current, and extracting energy from both sources could potentially increase the electric power output. Therefore, the Hybrid Wave and Current Energy Harvester (HWCEC) is introduced along with the hybrid gearbox. It is capable of harvesting energy from both ocean waves and current simultaneously so that the electric power output is significantly higher from a combined system. Tank test data shows 38-79 percent of electric power output promotion of an HWCEC compared to a regular WEC, and 70 percent reduced PAR in irregular wave condition. After that, system electric damping has been thoroughly investigated on both electrical side and mechanical side. The best power output corresponding electrical resistance is identical to the generator internal resistance while the best gear ratio of 3.5 is determined via both simulation and tank test. Furthermore, the system's PAR has been investigated by analyzing the trend of the peak occurrence. Tank test data shows the HWCEC's output power peak occurrence is at roughly 20 percent located at its PAR average. Therefore, the HWCEC system can promote energy harvesting efficiency to the combined system design, and improve its reliability from a significantly reduced peak to average ratio. It also gives HWCEC a large variety of deployable locations compared to a regular WEC under more marine environment. Furthermore, a new design of the Hybrid model, Hybrid LITE, is then developed, which not only features the HWCEC features, but also a lightweight, immersive and inflatable design for fast deployment and transportation. Since the system is built with an open water chassis, the overall system robustness is significantly improved since no water sealing is required on the powertrain compared to the HWCEC. / Master of Science / Ocean contains enormous amount of Marine Hydrokinetic (MHK) energy including ocean waves, tidal streams, and ocean current. Marine energy was investigated due to its continuous, massive and high-density hydrokinetic power output. In order to better serve the needs for ocean surface applications and take advantage of high energy density compared to other renewable energy sources, Wave Energy Converters (WEC) has been investigated, which harvests energy from the ocean wave. In the past years of study, it came to our attention that places such as the west coast of the U.S., northern Europe, and the Mediterranean area tend to have both abundant marine wave and current energy. Therefore, a new design of the Hybrid Wave and Current Energy Converter (HWCEC) is investigated for higher power output. In order to combine the energy sources from waves and current, a Hybrid Gearbox was selected to joint the power and unifies the motion from the wave for a higher efficiency. Simulations and 1:10 ratio co-existing wave and current basin test have been conducted for the HWCEC. By using the same system, single wave or current input are used as the baselines and the dual input HWCEC has demonstrated great benefit and potential. The electric damping and the gearbox ratio of the HWCEC are studied for the best power output in both simulation and tank test. The result shows that the HWCEC could promote up to 38-71 percent of electricity output in a regular wave condition, and 79 percent in irregular wave condition. The Peak to Average Ratio (PAR) is a key factor for system's mechanical reliability. The testing shows that the HWCEC can reduce 70 percent of the peak motion and contribute to the average, which is an indirect indicator of the system's better reliability. Furthermore, to align the needs of the design for real-life applications, The Hybrid LITE Converter idea was then developed for special deployment requirements for the future application of the Hybrid system. It has a novel open-system design with the implementation of a newly designed hybrid gearbox. This converter has the potential of promoting the reliability, deployability and weight reduction for easy transportation from its open system design compared to HWCEC. The system modeling could be done as future work varies from the changing deployment locations for higher electric power output.