ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a piezoelectric energy harvester based on non-homogeneous beam, which is employed to capture wind energy by galloping. A distributed parameter model of piezoelectric energy harvester with the nonuniformity of cantilever beam is developed. The quasi steady state approximation is used to simulate the fluid force. The model is verified by the experimental results reported previously. The influences of load resistance, the position of piezoelectric patch, and the size of beam on the output power are studied. Finally, a set of optimization parameters are generated to study the performance of the energy harvester. The results show that compared with rectangular beam, the output power of piezoelectric energy harvester with non-homogeneous beam can be increased by 32%.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the Open Funds of Graduate Innovation Base (Laboratory) for Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (kfjj20200214 & kfjj20200205).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).