Design method for piezoelectric cantilever beam structure under low frequency condition

In this study, to obtain the optimum design of piezoelectric cantilever beam under a low frequency condition, piezoelectric cantilever beams are designed based on finite element method with the validation of laboratory experiments. The finite element analysis software ANSYS is used to calculated the relationship between the dimension and the natural frequencies of the piezoelectric cantilever beam. Two piezoelectric cantilever beams are designed using both theoretical analysis and simulation results. Results show that the natural frequencies of the two kinds of piezoelectric cantilever beam are 9.77 Hz and 10.02 Hz, respectively. Laboratory experiments of the two piezoelectric cantilever beam show that the natural frequencies are 8.79 Hz and 8.83 Hz, respectively, with the peak voltage of 42.6 V and 57.0 V, and the average power of 1.04 mW and 1.97 mW. The good agreement on natural frequencies between numerical analysis and laboratory experiments demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed design method.