A NOVEL DESIGN OF A MULTI-MODEL AND VIBRATION-BASED PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTER

A novel design of a multi-model and vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvester by using the smart material of Magneto Rheological Elastomer (MRE) is presented in this paper. The optimization of the structure of energy harvester and the reason of employing the smart material are reported here. The structure was optimized through the changing of the length of the left wing beam. The smart material MRE was utilized as a replacement of the tip mass mounted on the tip of energy harvester. A model of the design was built and simulated with the help of the COMSOL Multiphysics. To verify the effectiveness of the design, an experimental platform was built up to test the model. The resonance vibration mode, the resonance frequency, the voltage output and the power output of the energy harvester were investigated and compared. The results demonstrate that the left wing beam with a length of 110 mm can provide a maximum voltage of 8.49 V vibrating at around 18.4 Hz. The application of MRE can further improve the voltage output 11.85 V vibrating at around 21.2 Hz on the basis of a structure with the same beam length.