Investigation of Electrical Properties for Cantilever-Based Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

In the present era, the renewable sources of energy are very much in demand i.e., piezoelectric materials, they play a vital role in the field of micro-electromechanical systems i.e., sensors and actuators. Cantilever based piezoelectric energy harvesters are very popular because of their high performance and utilization. In this research-work, energy harvester model based on a cantilever beam with bimorph PZT-5A having substrate layer of structural steel has been presented. The proposed energy scavenging system is designed in COMSOL Multiphysics to analyze the electrical output as a function of excitation frequencies, load resistances and accelerations. Analytical modeling is employed to measure the output voltage and power under pre-defined conditions of acceleration and load resistance. Experimentation is also performed to contemplate the relationship between independent and output parameters. Energy harvester is capable to produce maximum power of 1.16mW at a resonant frequency of 71 Hz under 1g acceleration having load resistance of 12kΩ.Its observed that acceleration and output power are directly proportional to each other. Moreover, the investigation conveys that experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical results. The maximum error obtained between the experimental and numerical investigation is found to be 4.3%.