ABSTRACT
Normally, wasted vibration energy that is dissipated to the surroundings can be converted to usable electrical energy. The common methods of energy harvesting by using piezoelectric materials for cantilever beam with tip mass attached at the free end will be placed in horizontal manner. This chapter deals with the aim of exploring the conditions under vertical orientation and parametric excitation to increase the power density to harness more electrical energy. A new configuration is proposed, which is oriented vertically and excited in the transverse direction at its base, and attempts to find out the motion parameters to maximize energy harvesting capability. The model of a low-cost shaker is developed and analyzed. Furthermore, the mathematical modeling for the governing equations of motion for this system is developed with the help of Hamilton’s principle, Galerkin’s approximation and method of multiple scales. Finite element modeling is done to investigate the characteristics of the PZT patch attached to the beam under parametric excitation. The frequency at which excitation occurs, the vibration characteristics, the voltage and power response of the system are obtained for three different substrates. A PID control mechanism for the motor is designed and tuned to control the system and its varying parameters. This is the field of research that has an ever-increasing demand since the number of energy harvesters globally is increasing at a very high rate.
