Enhanced energy harvesting using multiple piezoelectric elements: Theory and experiments

Power and bandwidth of piezoelectric harvesters can be increased by using multiple piezoelectric elements in one harvester. In this contribution, a novel energy harvesting cantilever array with magnetic tuning including three piezoelectric bimorphs is investigated theoretically and experimentally, with a good agreement between model and experiment. Other than harvester designs proposed before, this array is easy to manufacture and insensitive to manufacturing tolerances because its optimum operation frequency can be re-adjusted after fabrication. Using the superposition principle, the Butterworth-Van Dyke model and a mechanical lumped parameters model, the generated voltage and current are determined analytically. Formulas for calculating the power generated by array harvesters with an arbitrary number of piezoelectric elements connected in series or in parallel are derived. It is shown that optimum harvester design must take both the connected load and the operating frequency into account. Strategies for connecting multiple bimorphs to increase the maximum generated power and/or enhance the bandwidth compared to a single bimorph harvester are investigated. For bandwidth enhancement it is essential that individual rectifiers are used for the bimorphs. An example with three bimorphs shows that, depending on the chosen tuning strategy, the power is increased by about 340% or the bandwidth is increased by about 500%, compared to one single bimorph.