Design and Analysis of a Stiffness Compensated Energy Harvesting Piezoelectric Push-Button
A.S.M. Zuijdam (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
W.W.P.J. van de Sande – Mentor (TU Delft - Precision and Microsystems Engineering)
F.G.J. Broeren – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Precision and Microsystems Engineering)
J.L. Herder – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechatronic Systems Design)
T.W.A. Blad – Mentor
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Abstract
This thesis presents a piezoelectric energy-harvesting push-button that applies stiffness compensation to reduce input work and improve mechanical-to-electrical efficiency. The design combines a compliant compressive force amplifier with two negative-stiffness flexure shuttles mounted in parallel at the input.
An analytical model and finite element (FE) simulation were developed to predict the performance of a machined and 3D-printed prototype. The results show good agreement in trends between the models and experiments. The force amplifier achieves an amplification factor of approximately 9 with an input stiffness of 29 N/mm, while adding the negative-stiffness mechanisms reduces the effective stiffness to about 21.5 N/mm. Under equal mechanical input, the harvested electrical energy doubles from roughly 0.11 mJ to 0.22 mJ, demonstrating the effectiveness of stiffness compensation.
These findings confirm that integrating negative stiffness can enhance the efficiency of piezoelectric energy harvesters. Although the prototype is not yet at normal button dimensions, the principle is scalable and shows potential for compact, self-powered devices such as switches and sensors.
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