Piezoelectric energy harvesting has played a vital role in powering several engineering devices and systems, where conventional power supply is either not possible or not desirable. Another perspective for piezoelectric energy is its utilization as a non-conventional clean energy source, harnessing the ambient mechanical vibrations. With the increasing global population and developing infrastructure, the load from human footsteps can be a source of significant amount of freely available mechanical vibration energy. The piezoelectric tiles are aimed at harnessing this otherwise wasted energy with minimum interference to the regular activities. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the technologies and methodologies that have been implemented in the literature. A comprehensive discussion on the various designs and mechanisms utilized in piezoelectric energy harvesting tiles is provided. Electrical circuits, which are crucial for successfully extracting the electrical energy from piezoelectric harvesters in usable form, are also discussed in detail. The feasibility aspects, from economic and energy perspectives, are also presented critically. Lastly, the challenges in the successful implementation of the piezoelectric tiles and their possible solutions are presented.@en

Although conventional actuators like piezoelectric and electrostrictive are efficient, but they required hard wiring, which contaminates the control signal and adds to the weight of the structure. The current study presents a wireless control strategy using photostrictive actuators. Owing to the fortunate combination of photovoltaic effect and converse piezoelectric effect, a photostrictive actuator can generate mechanical strain, when irradiated with light intensity. Limited choices of photostrictive material with high electromechanical coupling coefficient give the motivation to design photostrictive composites. The finite element-based formulation incorporating fuzzy logic controller is employed to study the active vibration control response of cantilever structure when equipped with photostrictive composite actuator. A parametric study has been carried out to study the influence of inclusion's volume fraction on wireless active vibration control of the structure. Control merits have been defined to compare the control performance of different composites. It is found that particulate composites are the better choice for lightweight structure and fiber composites are better if there is no weight constraint.@en

In this study, a method for the bacterial disinfection of drinking water in the water storage systems based on the electric potential generated from a piezoelectric wind energy harvester is presented. First, an efficient galloping piezoelectric wind energy harvester is designed by adding curve- shaped attachments to the bluff body of the harvester. The simulated output voltage of the harvester is validated by performing different sets of experiments on an open environment. Later, the output voltage of the harvester is enhanced, using copper oxide nanowires (CuONWs) grown perpendicular to the surface of the center copper wire. The enhanced electric field is able to disinfect the bacterial water in a 25 min time period. The bacterial removal log efficiency of 2.33 is obtained with a supplied rms voltage of 0.1 V from the harvester. The findings of this study will help to provide alternate means to water treatment that are efficient, reliable, and also free from disinfection by-products.@en

A model for numerical homogenization of triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) based on electrostrictive composites is presented. This electrostrictive composite consists of TPMS (a three-dimensional continuous structure) implanted in a soft non-electrostrictive matrix. A representative volume element (RVE)-based approach is used to homogenize the electrostrictive composites and determine all the effective electrostrictive, mechanical, and electrical coefficients. Finite element formulation is employed to solve the nonlinear electrostrictive constitutive equations. Special attention is paid to designing the boundary conditions that permit the fast calculation based on simulations of overall deformation-induced due to mechanical and electrical loads. Interestingly, the value of the effective electrostrictive coefficient of the composite surpasses that of the inclusion Pb (mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTO3-BaTiO3 (PMN-PT-BT), even though the matrix is non-electrostrictive due to the additional flexibility imparted by the matrix. This electrostrictive response of TPMS-based composite is independent of the type of TPMS structures used. It is prudent to say that these composites will find their place in practical application owing to their salient features of more flexibility and high electrostrictive coefficient.@en