Design and Simulation of Cantilever Based MEMS Bimorph Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Piezoelectric generators designed for harvesting vibratory energy are usually based on mechanical resonators, cantilever beams for instance, able to effectively transmit ambient energy to the active materials. In this paper, we have designed and simulated a rectangular piezoelectric energy harvester, which consists of cantilever, proof mass, piezoelectric bimorph with different lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) materials (PZT-5A, PZT-5H, PZT-5J, PZT-7A, PZT-8) using COMSOL Multiphysics, (Finite Element Analysis) FEM Tool. The performance of the device mainly engrossed with the power-optimization by varying the materials and varying the dimensions of the proof mass and dimensions of piezoelectric bimorph. This model describes the consumption of the power dependence with the mechanical acceleration, frequency response and helps in the load behaviour for power optimization. The designed device will be used in aircraft engine and car engine. We observed from the simulated results, a rectangular piezoelectric energy harvester with PZT-5H material gives optimal power. Comparable with the conventional devices, MEMS based energy harvesting device is optimized with 33.3% of power.