Piezoelectric materials used in piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting

Abstract In order to maximize the acquisition of vibration energy of a large mechanical shell, the piezoelectric oscillation energy collector model of a twin cantilever beam was built in COMSOL Multiphysics software by finite element analysis based on the piezoelectric effect. The influence of piezoelectric material, substrate material, and size of piezoelectric material in the output features of piezoelectric energy collector is studied. The research shows that the PZT-5 A output features the best maximum output voltage and power up to 5.2 V and 1.1 mW in the 60-80 Hz range with the highest power density. Based on the selection of PZT-5A using brass as the substrate, the output characteristics of the best maximum output power increased by 5% to 1.16 mW. Based on the selection of PZT-5A as the piezoelectric material and brass as the substrate material, the length, width, and height of PZT-5A were simulated. Finally, the length, width, and height of PZT-5A were determined to be (21×6×0.06) mm 3 . In this case, the maximum output voltage and power were 5.93 V and 1.31 mW, respectively, which increased by 14% and 19% compared with the initial structure model.