Energy harvesting from an oscillating vertical piezoelectric cantilever with clearance

Vibration energy harvesting is proposed for a nonlinear electromechanical system. A mechanical resonator, which is realized as an inverted elastic pendulum excited by kinematic excitation, is characterized for a broad frequency band due to clearance and impact interactions. The moving frame induces pendulum beam deflection, and mechanical stress is converted into an electrical voltage by a piezoelectric patch. Finally, the output power is dissipated on the load resistor. The results of electric power and voltage outputs for various frequencies of kinematic excitations of the frame are shown. In the assumed working conditions, the system described transforms the input frame displacement frequency into the higher harmonics of beam deflection.

Pendulum angle versus voltage-output phase diagrams corresponding to R = 4610, 46,200, 98,600, 218,000 Ω, respectively.

Authors: Krystian Łygas, Piotr Wolszczak, Paweł Stączek, Grzegorz Litak

This paper was published in Energy Harvesting for Wireless Sensor Networks: Technology, Components and System Design (pp. 125–136). To read full text, please visit publisher site or download pdf file.