Experimental and numerical analysis on different beam geometries for vibration based piezoelectric energy harvester

Abstract

This paper presents the different beam geometries for vibration-excited piezoelectric energy harvesters. The performance of various beam geometries are analysed by comparing frequency analysis, open-circuit voltage, and determination of optimal load, voltage and power under load using experimental and numerical methods. The numerical results are obtained using the FEM software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a. From the frequency analysis of various beams by experimental and numerical analysis, it was found that the maximum deviation is about 4.18%. In the open-circuit voltage, TA TW and INTA TW energy harvesters have a minimum and maximum deviation of 0.77% and 9.92% with experimental and numerical methods. From the numerical and experimental results, it was found that the INTA TW energy harvester produces an averagely of 15.63% more power per unit volume compared to the RE energy harvester. From this investigation, it was found that the numerical method has good agreement with the experimental method.

Keywords:

• Piezoelectric
• energy harvester
• beam geometries
• micro applications