Research of Parameters of Plastic Piezoelectric Harvester for Practical Model Implementation

Piezoelectric energy harvesters have been extensively researched for use with wireless sensors or low power consumption electronic devices. Most of piezoelectric energy harvesters cannot generate enough power for potential applications. In this study, we explore parameters, including gap and proof mass, that can affect the damping of cantilever to optimize the design of energy harvester. A finite analysis is conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics software. In this type of simulation, loss factor is commonly used, but it produces a model that does not fit experimental data well. In order to build a true model, Rayleigh damping coefficients are measured to use in simulation. This resulted in a closer fit of modeling and experimental data, and a 5 times better output voltage from the optimized energy harvester comparing with using the smallest gap and mass.