Open Access
Comprehensive characterisation of a low-frequency-vibration energy harvester
(MDPI, 2024) Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Castellano Aldave, Jesús Carlos; Carlosena García, Alfonso; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
In this paper, we describe a measurement procedure to fully characterise a novel vibration energy harvester operating in the ultra-low-frequency range. The procedure, which is more thorough than those usually found in the literature, comprises three main stages: modelling, experimental characterisation and parameter identification. Modelling is accomplished in two alternative ways, a physical model (white box) and a mixed one (black box), which model the magnetic interaction via Fourier series. The experimental measurements include not only the input (acceleration)–output (energy) response but also the (internal) dynamic behaviour of the system, making use of a synchronised image processing and signal acquisition system. The identification procedure, based on maximum likelihood, estimates all the relevant parameters to characterise the system to simulate its behaviour and helps to optimise its performance. While the method is custom-designed for a particular harvester, the comprehensive approach and most of its procedures can be applied to similar harvesters.
Open Access
A unified analytical disk cam profile generation methodology using the Instantaneous Center of Rotation for educational purpose
(Elsevier, 2024) Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Bacaicoa Díaz, Julen; Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Aginaga García, Jokin; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Cam design is a fundamental part of the Mechanism and Machine Theory (MMT) and is included in the vast majority of MMT books. Cam profile design is usually determined with graphical and analytical methods. Graphical methods are didactically very successful to introduce the theory of cam profile generation in a simple way. In turn, analytical methods allow computer implementations of cam profile generation in order to reproduce it accurately. Most modern MMT books describe analytical methods using geometric equations and envelope theory. However, the analytical profile definition depends on the specific type of follower and there is a lack of a general formulation. This work presents a unified and general analytical formulation for the disk cam profile determination. Based on the Instantaneous Center of Rotation and the kinematic inversion, the formulation provides analytical expressions of the cam profile and is applicable to any type of follower. Thus, the unified formulation can be used in forthcoming books on this discipline.
Open Access
Mode-displacement method for structural dynamic analysis of bio-inspired structures: a palm-tree stem subject to wind effects
(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Vargas Silva, Gustavo Adolfo; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Ros Ganuza, Javier; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza
Biological materials (orthotropic materials), like wood, can offer good mechanical properties with a minimum amount of material, making their internal structure the suitable one to be applied on bio-inspired structures. The knowledge of the exceptional structural performance of palm trees, and specially its response to different loading conditions, provides useful information when lightweight structures with high slenderness ratio are desired. Recent researches focused on the analysis of palm trees subject to static loading conditions, ignoring the fluctuating nature of the wind speed. The purpose of this study is to simulate in a computational efficient way the effect of dynamic loading conditions applied on palm trees. Using the mode displacement method, the number of degrees of freedom of a dynamic finite element analysis can be drastically reduced with a minimal loss of accuracy. It was applied to simulate the behavior of structures comprised of an orthotropic material subject to a stochastic dynamic load. The influence of the number of selected degrees of freedom has also been studied. In addition, an exponential integration method is proposed to perform the time integration procedure. The results obtained show that a properly reduced model suitably represents the full finite element model without any appreciable loss of accuracy; it is also shown that computational cost can be drastically reduced. This method could give an appropriate computational representation of the behavior of orthotropic structures, and it could be used for studying more complex bio-inspired structures.
Open Access
Ultra-low frequency multidirectional harvester for wind turbines
(Elsevier, 2023) Castellano Aldave, Jesús Carlos; Carlosena García, Alfonso; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Ingeniería; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniaritza; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
In this paper we propose, and demonstrate through a prototype, a completely novel device able to harvest mechanical energy from the multidirectional vibrations in a wind turbine, and convert it into electrical, to power autonomous sensors. The application is very challenging since vibrations are of ultra-low frequency, well below 1 Hz, with accelerations of tenths of cm/s2 (0.01 g), and the device must capture energy from the movement in any direction. According to our experiments, the device is capable to generate average powers around the milliwatt in the operation conditions of a wind turbine, which are enough for some very-low power sensor nodes, or at least to considerably extend the life-time of batteries. The device is based on the principle of moving (inertial) masses comprised of magnets in Hallbach arrays interacting with coils, and can work for movements on any direction of a plane. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first device specifically proposed for wind turbines and one of the few that work in such low frequencies, and capture energy from movements on any direction on a plane. Only three harvesters proposed in the literature, intended for distinct applications, can work at such low frequencies, and our device exhibits a better efficiency. Though comparisons with harvesters working in different contexts and, even using different conversion principles, is not completely fair, we make in this paper a comparison to the closest ones, resorting to two different figures of merit.
Open Access
Hybrid modelling and identification of mechanical systems using Physics-Enhanced Machine Learning
(Elsevier, 2025-11-15) Merino Olagüe, Mikel; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Castellano Aldave, Jesús Carlos; Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Obtaining mathematical models for mechanical systems is a key subject in engineering. These models are essential for calculation, simulation and design tasks, and they are usually obtained from physical principles or by fitting a black-box parametric input-output model to experimental data. However, both methodologies have some limitations: physics based models may not take some phenomena into account and black-box models are complicated to interpretate. In this work, we develop a novel methodology based on discrepancy modelling, which combines physical principles with neural networks to model mechanical systems with partially unknown or unmodelled physics. Two different mechanical systems with partially unknown dynamics are successfully modelled and the values of their physical parameters are obtained. Furthermore, the obtained models enable numerical integration for future state prediction, linearization and the possibility of varying the values of the physical parameters. The results show how a hybrid methodology provides accurate and interpretable models for mechanical systems when some physical information is missing. In essence, the presented methodology is a tool to obtain better mathematical models, which could be used for analysis, simulation and design tasks.
Open Access
Modelado multiplataforma para el control de un sistema articulado
(UNED, 2023) Ibarrola Chamizo, Javier; Merino Olagüe, Mikel; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Hualde Otamendi, Mikel; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
En el presente artículo se ha trabajado con las herramientas de simulación de sistemas mecánicos Gazebo y Simulink, realizando una interconexión entre ambos con el fin de desglosar la parte dinámica y cinemática de la parte de control, obtención y tratamiento de datos. La vía de enlace entre ambos programas se realiza mediante otro software de comunicación, ROS. Con todo ello, se ha conseguido la cosimulación de un mecanismo articulado en la cual, Simulink comanda trayectorias a Gazebo a través de pares en articulaciones, Gazebo envía los valores de posición articular de la simulación a Simulink, y mediante el control multiarticular de pares realimentados diseñado en este último programa, se minimiza el error entre la trayectoria simulada y la ideal. La obtención de los parámetros del modelo dinámico requeridos en el control se ha realizado mediante una librería de Matlab (Lib_3D_MEC_Matlab) de análisis de sistemas multicuerpo desarrollada por la UPNA.
Open Access
Symbolic multibody methods for real-time simulation of railway vehicles
(Springer, 2018) Ros Ganuza, Javier; Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Pintor Borobia, Jesús María; Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de Materiales; Mekanika, Energetika eta Materialen Ingeniaritza
In this work, recently developed state-of-the-art symbolic multibody methods are tested to accurately model a complex railway vehicle. The model is generated using a symbolic implementation of the principle of virtual power. Creep forces are modeled using a direct symbolic implementation of the standard linear Kalker model. No simplifications, such as base parameter reduction, partial-linearization or lookup tables for contact kinematics, are used. An Implicit–Explicit integration scheme is proposed to efficiently deal with the stiff creep dynamics. Real-time performance is achieved: the CPU time required for a very robust 1 ms integration time step is 203 µs.
Open Access
Optimal strain-gauge placement for mechanical load estimation in circular cross-section shafts
(Elsevier, 2021) Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Aginaga García, Jokin; Gainza González, Gorka; Ros Ganuza, Javier; Bacaicoa Díaz, Julen; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
The customary electrical circuit configuration for estimating mechanical loads with strain gauges uses Wheatstone full- or half-bridges. For each mechanical load to be estimated, a dedicated bridge with two or four gauges has to be mounted, placing the strain gauges in specific configurations along the measured part. In this paper the strain of individual gauges is measured by means of quarter-bridges and all the mechanical loads exerted on a shaft are estimated jointly as different linear combinations of the strains of the gauges. The location of the gauges on the shaft are determined optimally and the influence of apparent strain related to temperature variations is avoided. Results show several configurations of reduced sets of gauges capable of optimally estimating the six components of the mechanical loads exerted on a circular cross-section shaft. The validation of the approach in a dedicated rig has shown the complexity of its experimental implementation.
Open Access
Inertia transfer concept based general method for the determination of the base inertial parameters
(Springer, 2015) Ros Ganuza, Javier; Plaza Puértolas, Aitor; Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Aginaga García, Jokin; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
This paper presents a new algorithm to obtain the symbolic expressions of any of the possible base inertial parameter sets of a multibody system. Based on the ¿inertia transfer concept¿, a procedure is proposed to write a system of equations from which the base parameters are obtained. This leads to an automatizable and general method to obtain these parameters symbolically. The method can also be used to determine base inertial parameters numerically, and it can be even more straightforward to implement and use than the standard numerical methods. An example is presented to illustrate in detail the application of the algorithm, and to compare its results with those of a standard numerical procedure. The symbolic base inertial parameters can be of interest in symbolic simplification of the dynamic equations for real-time applications, design optimization, dynamic parameter identification, model reduction, and in other fields.
Open Access
On the convergence of a modal updating iterative method applied to a vibrating table for food transportation
(2007) Iriarte Goñi, Xabier; Ros Ganuza, Javier; Mekanika, Energetika eta Materialen Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de Materiales
This work focuses on the updating of the parameters of a Vibrating Table Multibody model. Modal Analysis has been done to obtain the experimental Modal Parameters of the System (natural frequencies (ωi), damping ratios (ξi) and mode shapes (φi)), and the unknown Dynamic Model Parameters (p) are found through a Newton-Raphson based procedure that fits the Modal Parameters of the dynamic model to those obtained from the Modal Analysis experiment.