Date of Award

Summer 8-2016

Degree Type

Thesis-Restricted

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Major Professor

Uttam K. Chakravarty

Second Advisor

Paul J. Schilling

Third Advisor

Kazim M. Akyuzlu

Abstract

Hybrid energy harvesting is a concept applied for improving the performance of the conventional stand-alone energy harvesters. The thesis presents the analytical formulations and characterization of a hybrid energy harvester that incorporates photovoltaic, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic mechanisms. The initial voltage required for electrostatic mechanism is obtained by the photovoltaic technique. Other mechanisms are embedded into a bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam having a tip magnet and two sets of comb electrodes on two sides of its substructure. All the segments are interconnected by an electric circuit to generate combined output when subjected to vibration and solar illumination. Results for power output have been obtained at resonance frequency using an optimum load resistance. As the power transduced by each of the mechanisms is combined, more power is generated than those obtained by stand-alone mechanisms. The synergistic feature of this research is further promoted by adding fatigue analysis using finite element method.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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