Design and Analysis of Piezoelectric Cantilever Based Vibration Sensor

The vibration energy available abundantly in nature by various sources can be used for energy harvesting purpose and the vibration of machines can be used for condition monitoring of the machines. This paper presents the design and analysis of cantilever based piezoelectric vibration sensor. The design of the cantilever-based structure is done using Comsol Multiphysics and different parameters like deflection, stress, strain and voltage generated are analyzed. The dynamic response is also obtained to analyze deflections under the application of dynamic pressure at different modal frequencies. The vibration energy available from different vibration sources are sensed using this sensor to get the vibration signature. The simulated structure has natural frequency of approximately 56 Hz. The piezoelectric film sensor FS-2513P of similar dimensions (with Ag electrodes and protective layer) has natural frequency of 80 Hz. The Vibration source (Diesel engine) with vibration frequency 71.28 Hz generated the maximum voltage 2.45mV.