Study on power generations and dynamic responses of the bistable straight beam and the bistable L-shaped beam

Abstract

In this paper, a simplified model of the bistable piezoelectric cantilever beam with magnets is established, and the potential energy of the bistable system is analyzed. We have proposed the bistable L-shaped beam structure, which has the same geometry dimensions of the bistable straight beam in the first time. The comparative study on power generations and dynamic responses of the bistable straight beam and the bistable L-shaped beam plays an important role in exploring excellent piezoelectric generator. The experiment structure includes the base layer and the piezoelectric layer. The harmonic excitation is given to the system. Theoretical analysis results show that the potential energy function of the system has two obvious steady potential wells. In addition, the depth of the upper potential well is different from that of the lower potential well when the gravity potential energy is considered. Experimental results demonstrate that the power generation for the straight beam is better than that of the horizontally placed L-shaped beam when the excitation amplitude is 450 mV. There is the existence that the energy harvesting capacity of the bistable L-shaped beam is better than that of the bistable straight beam when the excitation amplitude is 400 mV. Furthermore, the power generation of the bistable L-shaped beam with the upper potential well is obviously better than that of the bistable L-shaped beam with the lower potential well. In addition, comparing with the straight beam, the dynamic response of the bistable L-shaped beam is more complex when the external excitation frequency is changed. It is also observed that the distance between the magnets has the obvious influence on the dynamic response of the bistable system. It is very effective to select the appropriate distance between the magnets to improve the power generation of the bistable energy harvester under the fixed excitation conditions.