ABSTRACT
The research interest in vibration energy harvesting by using piezoelectric materials has experienced a significant growth in the last decade. Many studies have demonstrated that the shape of the energy harvesting system may play a significant role in amount of energy that can be harvested. This review is divided into two sections. The first section summarizes the most common applications of piezoelectric materials, and the second section covers the geometry optimization of the piezoelectric harvester. In this review, optimization formulation was used with the aim of simultaneously maximizing the electric field and minimizing the structural volume of the microcantilever. The initial model was first validated against a similar theoretical model from literature. Afterward, a finite element model of an energy harvesting system was simulated in conjunction with direct search technique to obtain optimal solution. The results of this review indicated that the optimum design exhibited higher electric field and voltage compared with the initial design. Further, the maximum Von Mises stress results showed insignificant increase from 16.8 MPa to 17 MPa, respectively. These results are well within the strength constrains (syield = 24 MPa). The preliminary results of this review demonstrated that the geometry variation of the piezoelectric layer may have a significant effect on the electrical and mechanical characteristics of a piezoelectric beam.
