Modeling and parametric study of a force-amplified compressive-mode piezoelectric energy harvester. (February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Zhengbao; Zu, Jean; Luo, Jun; Peng, Yan
• Other Names: Karami Amin guest-editor.; Harne Ryan guest-editor.; Roundy Shad guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of intelligent material systems and structures. Volume 28:Number 3(2017)
• Page Start: 357
• Page End: 366
• Publication Date: 2017-02
• Subjects: Energy harvesting -- nonlinear vibration -- piezoelectric -- amplification effect -- flexural motion; Smart materials -- Periodicals; Intelligent control systems -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Periodicals; Matériaux intelligents -- Périodiques; Commande intelligente -- Périodiques; Intelligence artificielle -- Périodiques; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1177/1045389X16642536
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1045-389X

Abstract

Piezoelectric energy harvesters have great potential for achieving inexhaustible power supply for small-scale electronic devices. However, the insufficient power-generation capability and the narrow working bandwidth of traditional energy harvesters have significantly hindered their adoption. To address these issues, we propose a nonlinear compressive-mode piezoelectric energy harvester. We embedded a multi-stage force amplification mechanism into the energy harvester, which greatly improved its power-generation capability. In this article, we describe how we first established an analytical model to study the force amplification effect. A lumped-parameter model was then built to simulate the strong nonlinear responses of the proposed energy harvester. A prototype was fabricated which demonstrated a superior power output of 30 mW under an excitation of 0.3 g (g = 9 . 8 m/s 2 ). We discuss at the end the effect of geometric parameters that are influential to the performance. The proposed energy harvester is suitable to be used in low-frequency weak-excitation environments for powering wireless sensors.