<p> Embedded piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) systems in medical pacemakers have been an attractive and well visited research area. These systems typically utilize different configurations of beam structures with forcing originating from heart beat oscillations. The goal of these systems, at present, is to remove the pacemaker battery, which makes up 60-80% of the unit, and replace it with a sustainable and self-reliant power option. This requires that the energy harvesting system provide sufficient power, 1-3?W, for operating a pacemaker. With emerging technologies encouraging a push towards leadless pacemakers; typical energy harvesting beam structures are becoming inherently coupled with the heart system. The goal of this work is to develop, test, and simulate cantilevered energy harvesters with a linear elastic magnifier (LEM). This research hopes to provide insight into the interaction between pacemaker energy harvesters and the heart. By introducing the elastic magnifier into linear and nonlinear systems oscillations of the tip are encouraged into high energy orbits and large tip deflections. A continuous nonlinear model is derived for the bistable piezoelectric energy harvesting (BPEH) system and a one-degree-of-freedom linear mass-spring-damper model is derived for the elastic magnifier. The elastic magnifier will not consider the damping negligible due to the viscous nature of the heart, unlike most models. For experimental testing a physical model was created for the bistable structure and fashioned to an elastic magnifier. A hydrogel was chosen as the physical model for the LEM. Experimental results have shown that the bistable piezoelectric energy harvester coupled with a linear elastic magnifier (BPEH+LEM) produces more power at certain input frequencies and operates a larger bandwidth than a PEH, BPEH, and a standard piezoelectric energy harvester with the elastic magnifier (PEH+LEM). Numerical simulations were validated by these results showing that the system enters high-energy and high orbit oscillations. It has been shown that BPEH systems implemented in medical pacemakers can have enhanced performance if positioned over the heart.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10255430 |
| Date | 17 March 2017 |
| Creators | Galbier, Antonio Costante |
| Publisher | State University of New York at Buffalo |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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