Flexible energy harvesting from hard piezoelectric beams

This paper presents design, multiphysics finite element modeling and experimental validation of a new miniaturized PZT generator that integrates a bulk piezoelectric ceramic onto a flexible platform for energy harvesting from the human body pressing force. In spite of its flexibility, the mechanical structure of the proposed device is simple to fabricate and efficient for the energy conversion. The finite element model involves both mechanical and piezoelectric parts of the device coupled with the electrical circuit model. The energy harvester prototype was fabricated and tested under the low frequency periodic pressing force during 10 seconds. The experimental results show that several nano joules of electrical energy is stored in a capacitor that is quite significant given the size of the device. The finite element model is validated by observing a good agreement between experimental and simulation results. the validated model could be used for optimizing the device for energy harvesting from earcanal deformations.