Theoretical modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting in the system using technical textile as a support

An approach to harvesting electrical energy from a mechanically excited piezoelectric element has been described. The topic of this paper studies the most important properties of piezoelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in energy harvesting. We have chosen to develop a recovery application within the clothes. By the use of a piezoelectric energy harvester capable to convert the mechanical energy produced by the knee during walking to an electrical energy. This will be achieved by replacing the traditional textile of the kneepad with the one that is made of the technical textile based on acrylic knitted and PVDF as a patch stuck on the textile. Furthermore, PVDF has many unique features, such as excellent mechanical behavior, large strain without structure fatigue, which enables it to act strongly as the load bearing member, and corrosion resistance. The technical textile, functioning as multifunctional wearable human interfaces, is considered today as a useful tool in several energy fields. In this paper, a smart structure based on piezoelectric polymer (PVDF) has been presented, which a power analytical model, based on the frequency, the geometrical parameters and other factors were investigated. Furthermore, the set of numerical results illustrating the harvested power for a given size of the device has been performed and discussed and how this harvested power may be used as a source for a wearable device. Finally, the theory presented in this study can be used for the realization of other optimal designs, for a wearable sensor with low consumption and so on. Copyright (C) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.