Design Guidelines for Impact Mechanical Frequency Up-Conversion Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters

Abstract

Vibration energy harvesters based on the impact mechanical frequency up-conversion technique utilize an impactor, which gains kinetic energy from low frequency ambient environmental vibrations, to excite high frequency systems tuned to efficiently convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. In order to design energy harvesters to take full advantage of the impact mechanical frequency up-conversion technique, it is prudent to understand the mechanisms of energy transfer from the low frequency excitations, to the impactor, and finally to the high frequency systems. The purpose of this work is to develop design guidelines for impact mechanical frequency up-conversion piezoelectric energy harvesters. The specific objectives are to develop guidelines for: • Maximum energy transfer from the impactor to high frequency system • High frequency system design to maximize energy generation from piezoelectric device • Impactor size and placement of high frequency system to maximize impactor / high frequency system interaction for a given excitation spectrum