Experimental and simulation of a tension-like nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester

Abstract

This article proposes a low-frequency and efficient tension-like nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester, which increases the harvesting performance of the harvester by swinging the support frame. Firstly, design the structure of the harvester and draw a physical model. Secondly, finite element models are used to simulate and analyze the structure’s dynamic characteristics. Finally, make an experimental prototype of the harvester and explore the power generation characteristics of the device through experiments. The results indicate that the harvester has two natural frequencies under low-frequency conditions. The energy harvester has the optimal external resistance to achieve peak output power. The greater the excitation acceleration, the greater the total output power value of the energy harvester. When the mass of the mass block is 3.7 g and the excitation acceleration is 0.4 g, the total output power value of the energy harvester is 3.88 mW, and the harvesting frequency band is wide, indicating excellent output performance of the harvester. The experimental results of the energy harvester device are consistent with the simulation results, fully verifying the correctness of the experiment and simulation. This piezoelectric energy harvester can efficiently harvest vibration energy at low frequencies, providing a good prospect for supplying power to microelectronic devices.