Investigation of Nonlinear Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Low-Frequency and Wideband Applications

This paper proposes a monostable nonlinear Piezoelectric Energy Harvester (PEH). The harvester is based on an unconventional exsect-tapered fixed-guided spring design, which introduces nonlinearity into the system due to the bending and stretching of the spring. The physical-mathematical model and finite element simulations were performed to analyze the effects of the stretching-induced nonlinearity on the performance of the energy harvester. The proposed exsect-tapered nonlinear PEH shows a bandwidth and power enhancement of 15.38 and 44.4%, respectively, compared to conventional rectangular nonlinear PEHs. It shows a bandwidth and power enhancement of 11.11 and 26.83%, respectively, compared to a simple, linearly tapered and nonlinear PEH. The exsect-tapered nonlinear PEH improves the power output and operational bandwidth for harvesting low-frequency ambient vibrations.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a monostable nonlinear Piezoelectric Energy Harvester (PEH), based on an unconventional exsect-tapered fixed-guided spring design. The effects of stretching-induced nonlinearity on the performance of the energy harvester were analyzed through physical-mathematical modeling and finite element simulations. The results show that the proposed nonlinear PEH exhibits significantly improved bandwidth and power enhancement compared to conventional and linearly tapered nonlinear PEHs.