Investigation and experimental verification of the effectiveness of the interfaced plate parameters on impact-based piezoelectric energy harvester

This paper studies and validates the potential of the performance and output efficiency for the impact-mode piezoelectric energy harvesting system by introducing the additional interfaced plate. The interfaced plate is allocated between the ball dropped and piezoelectric disc. Therefore, the ball hits the piezoelectric disc indirectly. The impact force will be altered depending on different values of ball mass and height dropped. The two parameters such as diameter and height of the interfaced plate are investigated. The output efficiency of the piezoelectric disc increases when the diameter of the interfaced plate is decreased. While the amplitude of the output voltage and power increase as the height of the interfaced plate is increased. These statements are proven and determined by the results obtained in this paper. However, the output voltage and power of the piezoelectric disc without the interfaced plate is higher than the output power of the interfaced plate that is employed on the piezoelectric disc when the free fall experiment (instantaneous impact force) is conducted.