Design and verification of a new non-contact piezoelectric energy harvester based on a sinusoidal exciting mechanism

Abstract

In this paper, a new non-contact rotary piezoelectric energy harvester based on a sinusoidal exciting mechanism has been proposed. The energy transformation is realized in a non-contact form. The sinusoidal orbital rotor can act as a sinusoidal excitation to the contacts, and it can avoid damage to piezoelectric ceramics from direct strikes while bending piezoelectric cantilever beams. After a series of experiments, the prototype demonstrated an excellent output performance. Having explored the influence of the rotation speed on the output voltage, it reaches the peak when the rotation speed is 180 rpm and the maximum voltage is 18.6 V. The relationship between power and voltage was validated with the rise of resistance at the optimum speed. When the resistance is 10 kΩ, the power that arrives at the peak is 1.35 mW, and the maximum voltage is 12.1 V when the resistance is 200 kΩ. Some application experiments have been designed and verify the feasibility of the prototype; it can light up 18 LEDs and power some microelectronic equipment.