Experimentally Verified Analytical Models of Piezoelectric Cantilevers in Different Design Configurations

Abstract

This paper deals with analytical modelling of piezoelectric energy harvesting systems for generating useful electricity from ambient vibrations and comparing the usefulness of materials commonly used in designing such harvesters for energy harvesting applications. The kinetic energy harvesters have the potential to be used as an autonomous source of energy for wireless applications. Here in this paper, the considered energy harvesting device is designed as a piezoelectric cantilever beam with different piezoelectric materials in both bimorph and unimorph configurations. For both these configurations a single degree-of-freedom model of a kinematically excited cantilever with a full and partial electrode length respecting the dimensions of added tip mass is derived. The analytical model is based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and its output is successfully verified with available experimental results of piezoelectric energy harvesters in three different configurations. The electrical output of the derived model for the three different materials (PZT-5A, PZZN-PLZT and PVDF) and design configurations is in accordance with lab measurements which are presented in the paper. Therefore, this model can be used for predicting the amount of harvested power in a particular vibratory environment. Finally, the derived analytical model was used to compare the energy harvesting effectiveness of the three considered materials for both simple harmonic excitation and random vibrations of the corresponding harvesters. The comparison revealed that both PZT-5A and PZZN-PLZT are an excellent choice for energy harvesting purposes thanks to high electrical power output, whereas PVDF should be used only for sensing applications due to low harvested electrical power output.

Experimental Study on Magnetic Coupling Piezoelectric–Electromagnetic Composite Galloping Energy Harvester

“…The onset wind speed and aeroelastic behavior of the energy harvester structure are well predicted. Zdenek et al [ 27 ] use a single degree-of-freedom (DOF) model to compare the energy in the energy collection operations (PZT-5A bimorph, PZZN-PLZT bimorph, and PVDF unimorph). At the same time, the influence of the modal shape function on the simulation results is analyzed.…”

Sensors Special Issue: “Vibration Energy Harvesting for Wireless Sensors”

“…Koszewnik et al [5] developed a smart beam made from macro fiber composites (MFC), numerically and experimentally demonstrating how energy harvesting can be used for damage detection in structural health monitoring. Machu et al [6] further investigated the design of energy-harvesting-powered sensors through various configurations, creating experimental verifications of analytical models, which makes it possible to develop robust models with minimized computational effort, inkeeping with fundamental physics. Kunz et al [7] focused their efforts on novel methods to assess the performance of these harvesters in terms of power flow.…”