A novel two-degrees-of-freedom piezoelectric energy harvester

Hao Wu, Lihua Tang, Yaowen Yang*, Chee Kiong Soh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

238 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Energy harvesting from ambient vibrations using piezoelectric effect is a promising alternative solution for powering small electronics such as wireless sensors. A conventional piezoelectric energy harvester usually consists of a cantilevered beam with a proof mass at its free end. For such a device, the second resonance of the piezoelectric energy harvester is usually ignored because of its high frequency as well as low response level compared to the first resonance. Hence, only the first mode has been frequently exploited for energy harvesting in the reported literature. In this article, a novel compact piezoelectric energy harvester using two vibration modes has been developed. The harvester comprises one main cantilever beam and an inner secondary cantilever beam, each of which is bonded with piezoelectric transducers. By varying the proof masses, the first two resonant frequencies of the harvester can be tuned close enough to achieve useful wide bandwidth. Meanwhile, this compact design efficiently utilizes the cantilever beam by generating significant power output from both the main and secondary beams. An experiment and simulation were carried out to validate the design concept. The results show that the proposed novel piezoelectric energy harvester is more adaptive and functional in practical vibrational circumstances.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)357-368
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures
Volume24
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanical Engineering

Keywords

  • broadband
  • Energy harvesting
  • resonant frequency
  • two-degrees-of-freedom system
  • vibration

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