Abstract
In this Letter, we propose fractal-based piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) for broadband energy scavenging. The introduction of fractal topology into transducers significantly alleviates the inherent limitation of a narrow working bandwidth in commonly used cantilever PEHs. We conduct a finite element analysis and experiments to exploit the performance of fractal cantilever PEHs with different iteration times. Our findings reveal that the higher-order fractal structures generate an increased number of eigenfrequencies as well as modal patterns within a certain range of working bandwidth (i.e., <50 Hz). Experimental results indicate that the efficient energy harvesting bandwidth of the fractal PEHs of iterative levels 1 and 2 is 2.05 and 2.15 times, respectively, larger than the conventional PEHs (i.e., level 0). In addition, the harvested voltage and power of fractal PEHs can be enhanced by attaching a proof mass to compensate for the energy loss in producing iterations. This method exhibits superiority over capturing energy in low-frequency vibration environments, such as wave energy and human movement energy. © 2024 Author(s).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 114105 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 124 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| Online published | 14 Mar 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2024 |
Funding
This work was funded by the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (No. 22dz1204300).
Publisher's Copyright Statement
- COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION FILE: This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Jiheng Ding, Daican Zhou, Min Wang, Zhongjie Li, Yi Sun, Huayan Pu, Qiqi Pan, Biao Wang; Fractal-inspired multifrequency piezoelectric energy harvesters. Appl. Phys. Lett. 11 March 2024; 124 (11): 114105 and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0191964.