IEET-2016

Modeling of Piezoelectric Transducers for Energy Harvesting

Emilova, R., Goncharova, N., Ee, B., Konovalov, R., Spirina, O., Tsaplev, V.

Abstract.The paper concerns three different types of piezoelectric transducers for creating energy harvesting devices for small-size radioelectronic devices. Modes of operation of the proposed circuits of piezoelectric transducers are analyzed numerically in the mathematical FEM software package COMSOL 5.1. For a piezoelectric generator of the umbrella type, both numerical and experimental simulations are performed. The load regimes of piezoelements are determined both in the frequency and spatial domains, as well as the frequency dependences of the output voltage for transducers like disk bimorph umbrella-, aeroelastic- and the static-types. It is shown that the matching of the piezoe-lectric transducer with the load can be coordinated by connecting the piezoelectric elements in parallel to reduce the input resistance of the energy harvesting. The simulation results show the possibility of obtaining rather high voltages at different frequencies, and different designs make possible to use the piezoelectric energy harvesters in various conditions as independent energy sources.

Keywords:energy harvesting, piezoeffect, piezoelectric transducer, mathematical modeling, mechanical stress, strain, output voltage