Generating characteristics of a hump shaped piezoelectric energy harvester

This paper present generating characteristics of a hump shaped piezoelectric energy harvester. The harvester consists of a crooked elastic body plate and two ceramics which are attached on both inclined planes of the elastic body plates. This structure has a merit to lessen the stress of the ceramic because it can protect from direct pressure to the ceramic. And the harvester is easy to fabricate because additional support fixture is not required in this structure. The hump shaped harvester can be used in various industrial fields. Also the harvester can generate electrical power by using vibrations of lower frequency which can be found easily around us. The harvester are analyzed using finite element method program ANSYS. As shown, output voltage of the harvester is increased when ceramic thickness is decreased. By decreasing elastic body thickness, output voltage is increased. By increasing the elastic body's cap length, output voltage is increased. The harvester is fabricated using the analyzed result of FEM. Generating characteristics of the harvester are defined by comparing analysis results and the experimental results.