Abstract
One of the most important challenges in the design of the piezoelectric energy harvester is its narrow bandwidth. Most of the input vibration sources are exposed to frequency variation during their operation. The piezoelectric energy harvester’s narrow bandwidth makes it difficult for the harvester to track the variations of the input vibration source frequency. Thus, the harvester’s output power and overall performance is expected to decline from the designed value. This current study aims to solve the problem of the piezoelectric energy harvester’s narrow bandwidth. The main objective is to achieve bandwidth broadening which is carried out by segmenting the piezoelectric material of the energy harvester into n segments; where n could be more than one. Three arrays with two, four, and six beams are shaped with two piezoelectric segments. The effect of changing the length of the piezoelectric material segment on the resonant frequency, output power, and bandwidth, as well as the frequency response is investigated. The proposed piezoelectric energy harvesters were implemented utilizing a finite element method (FEM) simulation in a MATLAB environment. The results show that increasing the number of array beams increases the output power and bandwidth. For the three-beam arrays, at n equals 2, 6 mW output power and a 9 Hz bandwidth were obtained. Moreover, the bandwidth of such arrays covered around 5% deviation from its resonant frequency. All structures were designed to operate as a steel wheel safety sensor which could be used in train tracks.
Highlights
The simulation results show that the output power and bandwidth of the proposed structure are nearly constant at different piezoelectric material segments length
The output power and bandwidth of such arrays increase when the number of array beams increases. They satisfy a promising bandwidth broadening concerning the operation of the piezoelectric energy harvesters
The crystalline piezoelectric material is used as it has the advantage of generating higher output power [28]
Summary
It is used to harvest electrical energy from different frequencies at the same time [19] This technique is the most widely used one due to its flexibility of adding or eliminating a single piezoelectric cantilever beam. This conventional structure has major drawbacks concerning accomplishing accurate frequency tuning for piezoelectric energy harvesters It has only two output power peaks through its frequency range with a relatively high difference, 0.02 μW [27]. The simulation results show that the output power and bandwidth of the proposed structure are nearly constant at different piezoelectric material segments length. The output power and bandwidth of such arrays increase when the number of array beams increases They satisfy a promising bandwidth broadening concerning the operation of the piezoelectric energy harvesters.
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