Design and Testing of a New Rotary Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Wind Energy Harvesting

This paper presents the design, fabrication and testing of a new rotary piezoelectric energy harvester for harvesting renewable energy from the wind flow with compact structure which can operate in small limited region. The proposed energy harvester is composed of a rotor, permanent magnets, flexure mechanism, and piezoelectric stack. The architectural parameters are optimally designed to maximize the energy harvester's output performance. Finite element analysis is performed with simulation study to verify the performance. A prototype energy harvester with a single piezoelectric stack is developed for experimental testing. Results show that the proposed harvester provides a more compact design with larger power output than existing work. It demonstrates the feasibility and satisfactory performance of the developed energy harvester.