Increasing UAV Endurance through Integrating PVDF-BNNT Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters onto the Airframe

Abstract

With the increasing demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for military operations, it is of interest to the Navy to increase these drones flying endurance. Current solar-powered and battery powered UAVs have limited capabilities and technical challenges, such as weather dependency and long charging times. This project explored the possibility of using piezoelectric materials to extend the flying time of UAVs. Polymeric piezoelectric energy harvesters were both printed using stereolithography and cast in a mold. These harvesters were then tested for piezoelectric activity. Piezoelectricity was not observed despite the fabrication of flexible polymers. A problem with the printed polymers was sample inhomogeneity and low volume for piezoelectric activity. For the molded samples, saturation polarization was likely not achieved during poling.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2023
Accession Number
AD1213637

Entities

People

  • Anna C Sewall

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Aircrafts
  • Assembly
  • Construction
  • Energy Harvesting
  • Fabrication
  • Fused Deposition Modeling
  • Manufacturing
  • Material Degradation Processes
  • Materials
  • Materials Engineering
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Piezoelectric Materials
  • Piezoelectric Polymers
  • Printing
  • Stereolithography
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Aerial Unmanned Vehicle Swarm Micro Periodontal Dentistry.
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Materials Science and Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs