Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting under Free and Forced Vibrations for Different Operating Conditions

Description

The field of energy harvesting has grown rapidly, with the big development in low power components and Internet of Things (IoT). With the intent of harvesting electrical energy for self-powered devices, piezoelectric technology is considered. In this book, we propose several electrical and mechanical improvements to optimize the electrical energy harvested through piezoelectricity. To determine the best electrical configuration to harvest piezoelectric energy, three harvesting electric circuits were proposed and tested using a piezoelectric material (PZT-5H) mounted directly on a vibration exciter. The generated electrical energy by each circuit was determined at different excitation frequencies, from 20 Hz to 50 Hz, with an excitation amplitude of 2 mm. The best electric circuit generated around 35 μJ of electrical energy at an excitation frequency of 50 Hz. This circuit was subsequently used for the remaining aspects of this work. To enhance the obtained electrical energy, a metallic plate is used, the plate is fixed-free.