Additive Manufacturing of Energy Harvesting Material System for Active Wireless MEMS Sensors

Technical Report · Wed Dec 16 04:00:00 EST 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1755669· OSTI ID:1755669

Lin, Yirong ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Texas at El Paso, TX (United States); University Of Texas at El Paso

Combustion systems make up a large sum of the world’s yearly energy production despite advances in renewable energy sources. Precise control of pressure and temperature in combustion chambers allows for lower carbon emissions, and overall higher efficiency. Wireless temperature and pressure sensors are critical for the operation of combustion chambers. Energy harvesters have emerged as a viable way to power wireless sensors when heat and mechanical energy are available. Lithium niobate (LNB), barium titanate (BTO), and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) pyroelectric ceramics were studied and fabricated through additive manufacturing (AM) for use as energy harvesting structures in combustion environments. The electric power generation potential of LNB and PZT ceramics was studied by varying the temperature from 50 to 60 °C and by introducing cyclic compression loads of 2000 N amplitude. It was found that thermal energy conversion had the highest output of 500 nW and that combined thermal and mechanical conversion did not increase the harvesting potential because of the competing contributions of both effects. Powder bed and slurry extrusion AM methods were used to fabricate BTO and PZT ceramic structures. Optimization of the powder-based binder jetting method produced BTO ceramics with a relative density of 36.77% a piezoelectric coefficient of 153 pC/N. The density of the ceramics increased up to 56% when increasing the saturation of binder in the powder to because of liquid phase sintering. Finally, PZT structures were manufactured through AM and fin features were added to the design to enhance the heat transfer along the material. The harvested power density of the flat samples was 3.643 μW/cm³ and of the finned samples was 3.034 μW/cm3. This research paves the ways for the development of self-powered wireless sensors in critical areas of operation such as combustion.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Texas at El Paso, TX (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
• DOE Contract Number: FE0027502
• OSTI ID: 1755669
• Report Number(s): DOE-UTEP-27502-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
energy harvesting
sensor