Study of the Ambient Vibration Energy Harvesting Based on Piezoelectric Effect

The resonance between piezoelectric vibrator and the vibration source is the key to maximize the ambient vibration energy harvesting by using piezoelectric generator. In this paper, the factors that influence the output power of a single piezoelectric vibrator are analyzed. The effect of geometry size (length, thickness, width of piezoelectric chip and thickness of metal shim) of a single cantilever piezoelectric vibrator to the output power is analyzed and simulated with the help of MATLAB (matrix laboratory). The curves that output power varies with geometry size are obtained when the displacement and load at the free end are constant. Then the paper points out multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric power generation, including cantilever multi resonant frequency piezoelectric power generation and disc type multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric generation. Multi-resonant frequency of cantilever piezoelectric power generation can be realized by placing different quality mass at the free end, while disc type multi-resonant frequency piezoelectric generation can be realized through series and parallel connection of piezoelectric vibrator.