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Increasing the output from piezoelectric energy harvester using width-split method with verification

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Abstract

This paper proposes a new scheme for piezoelectric energy harvesting maximization. The proposed enhancement relies on a new topology of splitting a specified dimension piezo composite bender into beams with smaller width and, therefore, higher quality factor (or Q factor). The increase of Q factor allows a much more effective energy conversion process. It is shown that the proposed method, based on single splitting, increases the harvested power by a factor of up to √6, and up to √7.62 for two even-splitting compared to with no splitting. The wideband operation is accomplished by using different resonating benders in such a way that individual benders are each tuned to a different resonance frequency. Taking the configuration of single even-splitting as an example, the power output of the prototype was 39 μW at 27.2 Hz with 8 Hz bandwidth under 2 mm peak-to-peak input displacement and 3 Hz variation in resonant frequency. This corresponds to more than 2 times of power output with no splitting as well as about 23% increase in bandwidth. Such power output is sufficient to power up electronics devices such as a “2 AA dry cells-powered” digital clock with the wider range operating frequency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy, Vibration and Sound Research Group (e-VIBS), School of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 88400

    Chow Man Sang & Jedol Dayou

  2. School of Engineering and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 88400

    Willey Y. H. Liew

Authors
  1. Chow Man Sang
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  2. Jedol Dayou
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  3. Willey Y. H. Liew
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Correspondence to Jedol Dayou.

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Sang, C.M., Dayou, J. & Liew, W.Y.H. Increasing the output from piezoelectric energy harvester using width-split method with verification. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 14, 2149–2155 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-013-0291-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-013-0291-8

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