Research

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration" Nikola Tesla

 Research Keywords: Energy harvesting, Piezoelecric, Electromagnetinc, Thermoelectric, Nonlinear energy sink, metamatrials, vibration attenuation, IoT. 

 I am interested in structural dynamics and associated area. I began my career in research with vibration energy harvesting during his doctoral studies at IITM. Slowly, he developed research interests in applications of energy harvesting and vibration control. I have published my research in Journals, conferences and books. Currently, I am involved in theoretical analysis, numerical simulation studies and experimental observations of vibration energy harvesters. My broad research area can be enlisted as:

·         Vibration Energy harvesting

·         Structural control and energy harvesting

·         Thermoelectric energy harvesting

·  Vibration energy harvesting

Vibration energy harvesting has caught attention worldwide in the last decade. This is due to the fact that they can replace batteries used in wireless sensor system and can make them power independent. Energy harvesters have longer life span and need less maintenance. The challenges in vibration energy harvesting are the following

a. Low frequency harvesters for applications to civil infrastructures are rare

b. Power output from harvesters are not enough to activate many sensors

c. Frequency bandwidth of harvesters limits their applications

I have designed a low frequency multiple harvester system. A harvesting system with multiple pendulums with electromagnetic transduction system was proposed. Often parameters of individual harvesters are changed to harvest power at multiple frequencies. Sometimes the harvesters are tuned to a single frequency to harvested enhanced power at that frequency. Our study revealed that a slight mistuning in the parameters of tuned harvesters reduces the power harvested to a great extent. Further studies (both experimental and analytical) are conducted to assess the amount of power reduced. It has also been observed that coupling (mechanical and magnetic) these harvesters not only brings back the lost power but also enhances the operating bandwidth of the harvester. A thorough study in this connection is conducted on an array of electromagnetic harvesters. Currently one PhD student is working on design and development of electromagnetic energy harvesters with single and two degrees of freedom systems.

·      Structural control and energy harvesting

I looked numerically into controls and energy harvesting to integrate a controlling device with an energy harvesting mechanism in collaboration with Prof Ian Howard (Curtin University, Australia). This is obtained in energy harvesting dynamic vibration pendulum absorber (DVPA), a conceptual design. Dynamic vibration pendulum absorbers are used to reduce motion of building structure. DVPAs vibrate excessively as the motion is deviated to the DVPA system. The idea is to integrate energy harvesting mechanism with DVPA to harvest power from the motion of DVA. Theoretical and numerical analyses have shown benefit of energy harvesting dynamics vibration pendulum absorber. The work now has been extended to Nonlinear Energy Sink (NES) to mitigate the primary system vibration at broader frequencies and harvest energy from NES. Metastructures have shown promising results in enhancing vibration attenuation band gap and energy harvesting bandwidth. The internal resonators inside primary structure can perform dual function. Currently a PhD student is working with on metastructures.

·      Thermo electric energy harvesting

Thermoelectric generators are the solid state devices that convert waste heat directly to electrical energy. Thermoelectric devices are scalable, capable of generating power from nano Watts to mega Watts. It is expected that market of thermoelectric materials to reach 78.8 million dollars by 2023. Almost all types of automobiles such as light-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, passenger cars and HEVs are covered. To deeply explore the feasibility and potential of automotive exhaust thermoelectric generator (AETEGs), experimental, simulation and theoretical studies are to be carried out with different thermoelectric materials, TEG number, cooling strategies. Presently a PhD research student is working on TEG for Hybrid Electric Engine automotive exhaust system.

 Research Projects

Completed

1.  Energy Harvesting for wearable medical devices, Role: Co- PI, BLDE Deemed to be University, Seed grant, INR 3.00 Lakhs

2. Analysis and development of 3D printed metstructure based broadband energy harvester for IoT system,  Role: PI (Ongoing), VTU, Belgaum, Research Grant Scheme, INR 8.00 Lakhs

Completed

1. Emission prediction of diesel engine fuelled with nanomaterial based biodiesel using Artificial Neural Network Role: Co-PI (Completed), PI: Dr. Syed Abbas Ali (SIET, Vijayapur), Second Co-PI: Dr. Veerabhadrayya Hiremath (KLEIT, Hubli), Competitive Research Funding Scheme, VTU, Belgaum,  INR 02.00 lakhs

2. Vibration Energy Harvesting and IoT Lab (Role: PI), VGST KFIST L2, DST, Government of Karnataka. INR 40.00 Lakhs

Research visits and collaborations

1. IIT Delhi, Sept. 23-25, 2024, Indo-German Science and Technology Center workshop Arnab Banerjee, IIT Delhi and Steffen Marburg, Technical University of Munich.

Topic: Energy harvesting and Metamaterials

2. IIT Delhi, March 26, 2024, to March 28, 2024, SPARC workshop with Dr. Arnab Banerjee

Topic: Metamaterials

3. Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, Poland, Guest scientist during Nov.-Dec. 2019 under ehDIALOG program. (02 weeks), Part of collaborative research with Prof. Grzegorz Litak.

Topic: Pendulum based harvesters.

4. Shiv Nadar University, Dadri, UP, Visited on 6th Oct. 2017. Collaborative work With Dr. J Venkatramani (Now at IIITD Kanchipuram)

Topic: Nonlinear Energy Sink for Energy Harvesting

5. Swansea University, UK, Visited during Sept.-Oct. 2018 (01 month) for collaborative research with Prof. Sondipon Adhikari and Prof. M. I. Friswell.

Topic: Coupled and uncoupled harvesters

6. IIT Kanpur Collaborated with Dr. Tanmoy Mukhopadhyay (Now at the University of Southampton ), Aerospace Engineering Department

Topic: Metastructure for vibration control and energy harvesting

7.  University of Glasgow, Collaborated with Prof. Sondipon Adhikari, James Watt School of Engineering

Topic: Coupled and uncoupled harvesters