Design and experiment of multiple piezoelectric bimorphs for scavenging vibration energy

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Shan, Xiao-Biao^a | Yuan, Jiang-Bo^{a; *} | Xie, Tao^a | Chen, Wei-Shan^a

Affiliations: [a] Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0451 86417891; E-mail: yjb0420@126.com

Abstract: This paper presents a mathematical model for designing broadband piezoelectric energy harvesters by integrating multiple piezoelectric bimorphs (MPBs) with different resonant frequencies into a system. The finite element method (FEM) was used to predict the resonant frequencies of the MPBs. To verify the theoretical analysis, the resonant frequencies of the MPBs were measured using an experimental method. The results obtained from theoretical analysis were in very good agreement with those from the FEM and experimental results. The performance of MPBs is studied in energy harvesting. The results show that the MPBs can effectively increase the output power and enable broadband energy harvesters.

Keywords: Energy harvesting, multiple piezoelectric bimorphs, FEM

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-2010-1317

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 265-275, 2010