Design and Simulation of Unimorph Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting System

E. Varadarajan[1], M. Bhanusri[2],
[1]Research and Innovation Centre (RIC), IITM Research Park, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
[2]Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Published in 2013

In this paper we made an attempt to maximize the power output in the different piezoelectric materials in a unimorph cantilever beam configuration. In this research, a macro scale unimorph piezoelectric power generator prototypes consists of an active piezoelectric layer, stainless steel substrate and titanium proof mass was designed for frequencies 60 Hz - 200 Hz. An analytical model of a micro power generator is used to obtain displacement, voltage and generated power which are the figures of merit for energy harvesting. This model is presented for three different piezoelectric materials like, PbZrTiO3 (PZT), PVDF and PMN-0.33%PT. The designed unimorph piezo energy harvesting system was modeled using COMSOL Multiphysics® and the observed parameters are compared with analytical results.