Piezoelectric vibration harvesting device with automatic resonance frequency tracking capability

Abstract

International audienceFurther development in the area of vibration energy harvesting is limited by the lack of efficient methods to adapt the harvester to its surroundings. To this end, we propose an innovative passive way of automatic passive resonance frequency tracking. We present a new approach employing mechanical non-linear behaviour of the system to track the vibration frequency peak. An analytical model representing these nonlinear harvesting systems has been developed and analysed. Experimental results obtained with custom fabricated MEMS devices show an experimentally verified frequency adaptability of over 36% for a clamped-clamped beam device at 2g (1g=9.81m.s-2 ) input acceleration. We believe that the proposed solution is perfectly suited for autonomous industrial machinery surveillance systems, where vibrations with high accelerations that are necessary for enabling this solution are abundant