Rajasthan Technical University

About: Rajasthan Technical University is a education organization based out in Kota, Rajasthan, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Photovoltaic system & PID controller. The organization has 716 authors who have published 1084 publications receiving 4530 citations. The organization is also known as: RTU.

A novel ZnO piezoelectric microcantilever energy scavenger: Fabrication and characterization

Abstract: This novel piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film microcantilever was fabricated by micromachining technique. To release the cantilever, wet anisotropic etching of Silicon (Si) was performed by tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH). The transverse piezoelectric coefficient d31 of the ZnO film, obtained from the deflection of the cantilever with influence of applied voltage, was calculated as 3.32 pC/N. The observed dynamic characterization of the novel piezoelectric microcantilever had linear response with the applied driving voltage. The obtained values of Young Modulus and Hardness were 208 ± 4 GPa and 4.84 ± 0.1 GPa respectively. This inexpensive novel method provides additional design flexibility to fabricate vibrational energy harvesters. The easy steps of fabrication and cost effectiveness of this method may be preferred it over DRIE. The voltage induced due to deformation of ZnO cantilever were measured ~ 230 mV. This microcantilever energy scavenger may be used to power the nano devices and sensors for medical and agricultural applications as a replacement of traditional bulky batteries.

Modified Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm for Transmission Network Expansion Planning Problem

Abstract: Transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) problem is a large-scale, complex mixed integer nonlinear programming problem. The solution of TNEP problem is essential to fulfill the load demand in an economical manner. A grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm which is a nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm is used to solve the TNEP problem. Further, a modified GWO is developed, and to validate its result, it is tested on 20 standard benchmark test functions. The basic and modified version of GWO algorithms is applied to solve TNEP problem for Graver’s six-bus and Brazilian 46-bus systems. The obtained results are compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms. The results demonstrate the accuracy as well as proficiency of the proposed algorithm.