Investigation of a nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester with advanced electric circuits with the finite element method

Abstract

Abstract In this contribution, a system simulation method based on the finite element method (FEM) is applied to simulate a strongly coupled bimorph piezoelectric vibration-based energy harvester (PVEH) with various nonlinear, non-ideal and active circuits: The standard circuit, the synchronized switch harvesting on inductor circuit and the synchronized electric charge extraction circuit are considered. Furthermore, nonlinear elastic behavior of the piezoelectric material is taken into account and harmonic base excitations of different magnitudes at a fixed frequency are applied. The holistic FEM-based system simulation approach solves the complete set of piezoelectric equations together with the equation of the electric circuit such that all electromechanical coupling phenomena are taken into account. This fully coupled numerical analysis enables the detailed evaluation of the influences of the electric circuits on the vibrational behavior and the harvested energy of the PVEH with respect to the magnitude of base excitation. Results from literature on the efficiency of electric circuits are confirmed and interactions between mechanical and electrical nonlinearities of PVEHs are revealed. Article highlights System simulations of a mechanically and electrically nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester are performed using only one software tool. The infuence of electric circuits on the vibration behavior and the effciency of an energy harvester are investigated in detail. Interactions between mechanical and electrical nonlinearities of an energy harvester are revealed.

Keywords

• Multiphysics simulation
• Piezoelectric energy harvesting
• Numerical simulation
• Finite element method
• Coupled problem