Modeling and simulation of piezoelectric composite diaphragms for energy harvesting

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Junwu, Kan^a | Jinhao, Qiu^{b; *} | Kehong, Tang^a | Kongjun, Zhu^b | Chenghui, Shao^a

Affiliations: [a] College of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, China | [b] Aeronautical Science Key Lab for Smart Materials & Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel./Fax: +86 25 84893466; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of a piezoelectric generator can be denoted by its effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (EECC), which depends only on the geometry parameters with a certain boundary conditions. To obtain the optimal energy-harvesting device, the Raleigh Method was utilized to establish the analysis model of circular piezoelectric composite diaphragms. Simply supported and clamped boundary conditions were considered. The relationships between the performance parameters (EECC and natural frequency) and the structural parameters (diametric ratio β and thickness ratio α) of piezoelectric composite diaphragms were figured out. Given the correlative material parameters and boundary conditions, the performance parameters with the structural parameters as variables can be worked out. The simulation results show that the optimal structural parameters of a composite diaphragm in the case of the simply supported and clamped boundary conditions are different. A simply supported diaphragm generator tends to achieve higher effective electromechanical coupling coefficient and lower natural frequency, and is more suitable for the applications of energy harvesting.

Keywords: Piezoelectric, energy harvesting, effective electromechanical coupling coefficient, energy conversion efficiency, Rayleigh method

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-2009-1039

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 30, no. 1-2, pp. 95-106, 2009