Investigation on the Performance of Modified Piezoelectric Cantilever Energy Harvester and Storage for Wireless Sensor Node

Abstract

This paper proposes piezoelectric-based trapezoidal cantilever beam for harvesting energy from ambient vibrations. To utilize the energy harvested by the device and to supply it to the low-power sensors in the wireless sensor nodes, an efficient rectifier circuit and boost circuit unit are also introduced along with the energy harvester. The 2-degrees of freedom (DOF) cantilever energy harvester is designed with trapezoidal-shaped driver mass and absorber mass connected with each other with a mechanical coupling unit. As the mass of the absorber is smaller, it produces larger amplitude of deflection for the given ambient force of vibration and thus the improved harvested energy is efficiently stored. The dynamic model of the proposed cantilever-based energy harvester is derived, and the frequency response is plotted. From the results obtained, it is clearly seen that the proposed energy harvesting method could produce better output in comparison with the conventional 1-DOF cantilever-based energy harvester.KeywordsCantilever beamEnergy harvesterPiezoelectricPower managementVibration