Design and experiment of multiple piezoelectric bimorphs for scavenging vibration energy

This paper presents a mathematical model for designing broadband piezoelectric energy harvesters by integrating multiple piezoelectric bimorphs (MPBs) with different resonant frequencies into a system. The finite element method (FEM) was used to predict the resonant frequencies of the MPBs. To verify the theoretical analysis, the resonant frequencies of the MPBs were measured using an experimental method. The results obtained from theoretical analysis were in very good agreement with those from the FEM and experimental results. The performance of MPBs is studied in energy harvesting. The results show that the MPBs can effectively increase the output power and enable broadband energy harvesters.