Design and Simulation of Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Aerospace Applications

The focus of our study is to design piezoelectric harvesting cantilevers in order to convert environmental mechanical vibrations of low frequencies into electrical energy via direct piezoelectric effect. The final device consists of two arrays of cantilevers with a silicon substrate, a PZT-5H piezoelectric layer and a tungsten proof mass in order to obtain low resonant frequencies. The cantilevers are designed to work around 30, 45 and 90Hz and with an acceleration of 15.4, 8.6 and 1.5 m/s2respectively. All the models are simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 from the point of view of resonant frequencies and von Mises stress. (Abstract).