Comparison of Performance of PVDF-based Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with Commercial Piezo Sensor

This work presents an energy harvesting system by leveraging the open power of vibration. The object of this paper is a multilayer piezoelectric vibrational energy harvesting device consisting of relatively flexible cantilever beam covered with PVDF, which is enveloped with electrodes enabling to collect charge developed across deformed piezoelectric material. This cantilever beam is supported by a rigid mechanical support (steel substrate), incorporated into the harvester with the aim to widen its operational frequency range and prolong lifetime. The designed harvester successfully generates an average power of 9.2 μW/g/mm
³
with a resonant frequency of 43Hz, generating at least 15 V RMS voltage and 495 μW power for acceleration 1g. Whereas the commercial piezo sensors generate power of 10 nW/g/mm
³
. The method of fabrication of the proposed energy harvester is discussed. The performance of proposed energy harvester and commercially available piezo sensor is compared and discussed in this work.