Design and analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters with and without optimization techniques

Abstract

Energy harvesting is the process of converting the wasted vibrational newlineenergy in the environment into usable forms of electrical energy. Vibration newlineenergy harvesting technique is chosen due to its high effectiveness and newlinepotentiality for designing miniaturized devices. Among various types of energy newlineharvesting devices such as Piezoelectric, Electrostatic and Electromagnetic, newlinePiezoelectric Energy Harvesters (PEH s) are chosen due to its flexibility and newlineadaptability. The PEH s are of two types: Unimorph and Bimorph. Unimorph newlineharvesters are the devices that consists of a single piezo layer and a substrate newlinelayer. Bimorph energy harvester consists of two substrate layers bonded in newlinebetween a piezo layer. The literature survey reveals the necessity of modeling newlinevarious shapes of piezoelectric energy harvesters with improved performance. newlineIn this work, initially different shapes of piezoelectric structures (basic newlineshape, rectangular shape with hole, E, and#960; and T) are designed, which has newlineconsumed more time in modeling the design variables of the energy harvester. newlineThe most commonly used piezoelectric material PZT-5H (Lead Zirconate newlineTitanate) is chosen due to its flexibility and efficiency in power generation. The thesis focuses on the effect of various shapes of proof mass newlinegeometries (Square, Rectangular, L, H, E, Cylinder, and#960; and T) in terms of newlinemultiple count which has been analyzed on the PEH. From the proof mass newlineshape analysis, square proof mass in multiple counts has considerably increased newlinethe power output of the energy harvester, in comparison to the structures newlinewithout proof mass. newline newline