Modeling and enhancement of piezoelectric power extraction from one-dimensional bending waves

Abstract

Vibration-based energy harvesting has been heavily researched over the last decade to enable self-powered small electronic components for wireless applications in various disciplines ranging from biomedical to civil engineering. The existing research efforts in this interdisciplinary field have mostly focused on the harvesting of deterministic or stochastic vibrational energy available at a fixed position in space. Such an approach is convenient to design and employ linear and nonlinear vibration-based energy harvesters, such as base-excited cantilevers with piezoelectric laminates. However, persistent vibrations at a fixed frequency and spatial point, or standing wave patterns, are rather simplified representations of ambient vibrational energy. As an alternative to energy harvesting from spatially localized vibrations and standing wave patterns, this work presents an investigation into the harvesting of one-dimensional bending waves in infinite beams. The focus is placed on the use of piezoelectric patches bonded to a thin and long beam and employed to transform the incoming wave energy into usable electricity while minimizing the traveling waves reflected and transmitted from the harvester domain. To this end, performance enhancement by wavelength matching, resistiveinductive circuits, and a localized obstacle are explored. Electroelastic model predictions and performance enhancement efforts are validated experimentally for various case studies.