Stiffness compensation for piezoelectric energy harvesting: Improving the efficiency at low-frequency vibrations

In the field of vibration energy harvesting, vibration energy is tranduced to electrical energy to power small, low powered devices. Many energy harvesters are produced in the form of a resonator, where resonant amplification enables efficient operation of the energy harvester. At low frequencies below 10 hz, input motions quickly increase for a...

Manipulating post-buckled compliant mechanisms: Buckling mode interaction as a novel method of stiffness compensation

Bistable vibration energy harvesters are an interesting alternative to their linear counterparts. They allow for large amplitude oscillations between their stable equilibria, from which much energy can be generated. However, the stable equilibria are separated by a potential energy barrier that has to be overcome. Therefore, we cannot guarantee...

A stiffness compensated piezoelectric energy harvester for low-frequency excitation

In this work, a stiffness compensated piezoelectric vibration energy harvester is modelled and tested for low-frequency excitations and large input amplitudes. Attracting magnets are used to introduce a negative stiffness that counteracts the stiffness of the piezoelectric beam. This results into a nearly statically balanced condition and...