Affiliations: [a] State Key Lab of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical
Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing,
Jiangsu, China
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Jun-Hui Hu, State Key Lab of Mechanics
and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. E-mail: EJHHU@nuaa.edu.cn
Abstract: Linear uniform beams have been extensively investigated as a typical
piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting mechanism in both conventional
cantilever-beam-based harvester and a novel internal impact type energy
harvester, the latter is of broad bandwidth and frequency up-converting
capability and therefore quite suitable to low frequency ambient vibrations. To
sufficiently utilize the space of the existing internal impact type energy
harvester, a bent metal beam with distributed piezoelectric patches is proposed
and investigated as the vibration energy harvesting module. A prototype
harvester has been built and performances including the voltage and output
power have been tested by experiments and analyzed by the finite element
analysis. Both experiment and finite element analysis show that the proposed
structure can effectively harvest vibration energy. And the optimal position
for energy harvesting in this structure is also found. This work indicates that
the frame of the existing internal impact type energy harvester may be used to
harvest vibration energy, if it is bonded with distributed piezoelectric
patches, which gives a way to increase its power density.
Keywords: Piezoelectric energy harvesting, impact, bent beam, finite element analysis
