Numerical Investigation of Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesting with L-shaped Beam

Abstract

Abstract Energy harvesting efficiency is a crucial problem in practical engineering applications of piezoelectric vibration energy harvester. L-shaped piezoelectric vibration energy harvester has the potential of broadband and high energy harvesting efficiency. Different vibration energy harvesting structures are numerically investigated here to compare their energy harvesting efficiencies, including traditional cantilever beam structure and L-shaped structures. Verification and validation of the numerical simulation approach adopted here are conducted firstly, through comparing the numerical results with the theoretical and experimental results respectively. Modal analysis and harmonic response analysis are conducted consequently to obtain the natural frequencies and voltage outputs of different harvesters. Numerical results show that, L-shaped harvester is a potential broadband energy harvesting structure with higher energy harvesting efficiency compared with traditional cantilever harvester.