Special Journal Issue Explores Issues Related to Response Analysis and Optimization of Dynamic Energy Harvesting Systems

Manuscripts are now being accepted for a special issue of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering that will address the subject of response analysis and optimization of dynamic energy harvesting systems under the presence of uncertainties. The deadline for authors to submit a paper for the January 2021 special issue is January 31, 2020.

Harvesting kinetic energy from vibrating structures of different scales has captured considerable attention within the scientific community and gained popularity in various engineering applications during recent decades. Regardless of scale or underlying technology, the efficiency of kinetic energy harvesters relies on careful design and dynamic tuning of their properties in both the mechanical/structural and the electrical/circuit domains, which are greatly determined by the attributes of the vibrating structures and of the dynamic excitation.

Accounting for the uncertainty of these attributes becomes important to the efficient design of energy harvesting systems as well as the dependable assessment and prediction of their operating efficiency. This uncertainty results from both the natural randomness of dynamic excitation in time, as in the case of sea waves and wind fields, and from imprecise knowledge of the properties of the anticipated dynamic excitation, as well as the properties of the vibrating structures, the energy harvesting materials or motors, and the electric circuit components and method of energy storage.

This special issue of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering will focus on the analytic/mathematical modeling, optimal design/tuning, and performance assessment, through simulations or experimental/field testing, of kinetic energy harvesting systems in the presence of uncertainty related to dynamic excitation or system properties.

Submissions can address such areas as mathematical uncertainty modeling aspects for dynamic energy harvesting systems; computational and analytical methods for assessment and/or design of such systems under uncertainty; and experimental field or lab testing intended to capture or quantify the behavior of such systems in uncertain environments. Authors are encouraged to submit both theoretical studies as well as work related to practical engineering problems or focused applications.

Contributions discussing the following themes are particularly encouraged: stochastic dynamics methods for the response analysis and performance assessment of randomly excited energy harvesting systems; Monte Carlo-based methods and surrogate methods for the analysis and reliability assessment of energy harvesting systems to dynamic loads; and optimization and reliability-based design of energy harvesting systems with uncertain properties or under random excitation.

Manuscripts should be submitted to the editors by January 31, 2020, through the ASME Journal Tool. Authors who already have an account should log in as an author and select “Submit Paper” at the bottom of the page. Authors without an account should select “Submissions” and follow the step-by-step directions. At the “Paper Submittal” page, authors should select “ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering” and choose “Response Analysis and Optimization of Dynamic Energy Harvesting Systems under the Presence of Uncertainties (SI039B)” from the special issue drop-down menu.

Prior to formal submission, authors should send a copy of their manuscripts to the guest editors to ensure the work is within the scope of the special issue and is otherwise appropriate for peer review. The guest editors for this special issue are Agathoklis Giaralis, City, University of London, U.K., agathoklis.giaralis.1@city.ac.uk; Ioannis A. Kougioumtzoglou, Columbia University, U.S.A., ikougioum@columbia.edu; and Pol D. Spanos, Rice University, U.S.A., spanos@rice.edu.

For more information on the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering, visit https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/risk. To learn more about the ASME Journal Program, visit https://journaltool.asme.org.