Optimized multi-frequency nonlinear broadband piezoelectric energy harvester designs

Abstract

Many electrical devices can be powered and operated by harvesting the wasted energy of the surroundings. This research aims to overcome the challenges of output power with a sharp peak, small bandwidth, and the huge dimensions of the piezoelectric energy harvesters relative to the output power. The aforementioned challenges motivated us to investigate the effect of nonlinearity in the shape (tapered and straight cross-section area) as well as the fixation method (the number of fastened ends) to determine the optimal design with high output power and wide working frequency. This research proposes a novel piezoelectric energy harvester array, where each beam is made up of three fixed beams that are joined together by a center mass. The proposed design produces an output power of 35 mW between 25 and 40 Hz. The output power of the proposed design is 3.24 times more than the conventional designs. The recommended approach is simulated utilizing finite element analysis FEA. Analytical and experimental methods validate the proposed FEA, which exhibits excellent agreement.