Research on Resonant Frequency and Output Power of Piezoelectric Energy-Harvesting Micro-Device

Abstract

A vibration energy harvester is typically composed of a spring–mass system, with the advantage of high energy density, simple structure and easily being miniaturized. Recently, effects of cantilever beam’s structural parameters and cross-section shape on energy-harvesting micro-device is concerned and investigated in this paper, so as to study its performance of energy harvesting to meet the needs of low resonant frequency and maximum output power. The effect of a cantilever beam’s structure dimensions as well as quality of the mass on the device’s resonance frequency and maximum output power can be detected through formula computing. Further study on effect of a cantilever beam’s cross-section shape has also been worked out. According to the simulation experimental results gained from ANSYS with appropriate parameters defined by theoretical derivation, we manage to receive concordant conclusions. To receive a better performance of the energy harvester, we should choose a shorter, wider and thicker cantilever beam with rectangular cross-section and heavier mass at its end. However, to meet the requirement of low resonant frequency for piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting, we still need to define either an upper or a lower limit while choosing parameters of the device.