Analysis of a Cantilevered Piezoelectric Energy Harvester in Different Orientations for Rotational Motion

Abstract

This paper investigates a piezoelectric energy harvester that consists of a piezoelectric cantilever and a tip mass for horizontal rotational motion. Rotational motion results in centrifugal force, which causes the axial load on the beam and alters the resonant frequency of the system. The piezoelectric energy harvester is installed on a rotational hub in three orientations—inward, outward, and tilted configurations—to examine their influence on the performance of the harvester. The theoretical model of the piezoelectric energy harvester is developed to explain the dynamics of the system and experiments are conducted to validate the model. Theoretical and experimental studies are presented with various tilt angles and distances between the harvester and the rotating center. The results show that the installation distance and the tilt angle can be used to adjust the resonant frequency of the system to match the excitation frequency.

Energy Harvester Sensing

“…The main theme of the research on energy harvester sensors is represented by the low amount of energy. We can therefore distinguish some articles in which the interest of research is on the energy source and the transducer [1][2][3][4], from articles in which the interest is on how to maximize this extracted energy [5,6] or on how it is possible to use these small quantities of energy [7][8][9].…”

“…In [4], Su et al perform a study on a piezoelectric cantilever with a tip mass subjected to a horizontal rotational motion. Rotational motion is a consequence of centrifugal force, which causes an axial load on the beam and alters the resonant frequency of the system.…”

On the Design of a Thermo-Magnetically Activated Piezoelectric Micro-Energy Generator: Working Principle

“…Since the past decade there has been a growing interest in energy harvesters using piezoelectric materials [1][2][3]. Several studies, for instance [4][5][6], have been conducted on piezoelectric energy harvesters. These studies tended to focus on various orientations for the generator including inward, outward, and tilted configurations.…”

Rotational Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: A Comprehensive Review on Excitation Elements, Designs, and Performances

“…Rotational mechanical energy is one of the significant power sources for piezoelectric energy harvesting. Various types of rotational power sources have been used in the past few years for piezoelectric energy harvesting, such as rotational machines [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], vehicle tire [19][20][21][22][23], human motion [24][25][26][27][28], and even wind [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and fluids [31,32,[37][38][39][40][41]. They have been applied in various applications, such as tire pressure monitoring system TPMS [42][43][44], WSNs in any rotary machine [11,45,46], wearable device and medical implants [47][48][49][50][51], and others.…”