Modelling Investigations on Efficiency of Miniaturized Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Abstract

Currently, energy harvesting is an interesting area of research, and the world is looking for green energy as an alternative source. Energy harvesters take advantage of ambient sources including light, heat, and motion. The present investigation focuses on modelling a piezoelectric unimorph cantilever to evaluate the static analysis of the electric potential by optimizing the dimensions, materials (PZT-4, ZnO, and PVDF), and shapes to realize optimized efficiency. The unimorph cantilever was modelled with L-and H-shapes by exploring its electric potential through boundary loads ranging from 10 to 100N and the simulation was performed with and without the steps included. Among all three materials, PVDF material has shown the maximum electric potential than that of other materials under 100N boundary load when steps are inserted compared to without insertion of steps. The maximum electric potential observed for L and H shapes are 14.6mV and 69.4mV respectively. From the analysis of these results, the H-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester with PVDF under a 100N boundary load exhibited the highest conversion efficiency. COMSOL Multiphysics software version 5.2 is used.