Abstract
A global nonlinear distributed-parameter model for a piezoelectric energy harvester under para- metric excitation is developed. The harvester consists of a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass. The derived model accounts for geomet- ric, inertia, piezoelectric, and fluid drag nonlinearities. A reduced-order model is derived by using the Euler- Lagrange principle and Gauss law and implementing a Galerkin discretization. The method of multiple scales is used to obtain analytical expressions for the tip deflection, output voltage, and harvested power near the first principal parametric resonance. The effects of the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients, the quadratic damping, and the excitation amplitude on the output voltage and harvested electrical power are quantified. The results show that a one-mode approximation in the Galerkin approach is not sufficient to evaluate the per- formance of the harvester. Furthermore, the nonlinear piezoelectric coefficients have an important influence on the harvester's behavior in terms of softening or hardening. Depending on the excitation frequency, it is determined that, for small values of the quadratic damping, there is an overhang associated with a sub- critical pitchfork bifurcation.
Published Version
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