Modeling and optimization of multimodal piezoelectric energy harvesters from broadband vibration

Resumo

Piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies from ambient vibration sources have attracted considerable
attention in recent years for powering low-power autonomous electronic devices. In real-world applications,
environmental vibration excitation may feature in a broadband spectrum presenting random characteristics. In this
work, circular-shaped and pizza-shaped configurations are investigated as candidate designs for multimodal
piezoelectric energy harvesting systems to harness energy from wideband vibration sources. A comparison with a
conventional beam-type energy harvesting system is performed. The system dynamics are modeled, designed,
optimized, and investigated using the finite element method implemented in ANSYS Workbench. Numerical
simulations are carried out to investigate the system performances aiming to establish suitable performance
conditions, considering harmonic and random excitations. The modeling approach is interesting to design other
energy harvesting systems, especially with complex geometries. The proposed multimodal harvester has potential
to harvesting energy from broadband vibration excitations showing performance advantages compared with
classical single-mode energy harvesters.