Finite element analysis of a novel piezoelectric arch energy harvester

In this paper, a novel energy harvester was developed which could be installed into pavement to harvest electrical energy from vibrations in roads. The harvester is composed of a cuboid piezoelectric plate sandwiched between two metal endcaps with shallow cavities which can amplify the mechanical stress to increase the stress on piezoelectric material. An electromechanical coupling model was built through the Finite Element Analysis method to investigate the effects of the harvester dimension on open-circuit voltage, resonant frequency. In addition, the influences of load resistor under varying external frequencies on output voltage, current, and power were also studied. It was found that the load resistor, external frequency and structural parameters had significant influences on the properties of arch energy harvester. The output voltage became higher with the decreasing of cavity height, bond length, and endcap thickness while it became lower with the decline of PZT dimension (length, width, and thickness). The increases of PZT thickness, bond length, and endcap thickness could lead to a higher resonant frequency while the PZT length had an opposite effect on the resonant frequency. The performance of arch energy harvester with optimally selected parameters was investigated. The analysis results demonstrated that the arch energy harvester had a high potential to be utilized in the pavement for energy harvesting.