Harvesting wasted energy and converting it into electrical energy to use as needed is an emerging technology area. In this work, a new design of a cymbal energy harvester is developed and tested to validate analytical energy generating performance. Cymbal transducers have been demonstrated to be beneficial as energy harvesters for vibrating systems under modest load and frequency. In this paper a new design is adopted using a unimorph circular piezoelectric disc between the metal end caps to deal with higher loads. Simple analysis for the new cymbal design to predict voltage output was first conducted. The new cymbal design, 25.4 mm diameter and 8.2 mm thickness, was then fabricated and tested on the load frame with up to 324 lb load and 1 Hz frequency to measure output voltages. This device could be used in numerous applications for potentially self sustaining sensors or other electronic devices. By changing the structure between the metal end caps of cymbal harvesters the new design could be extended in higher load applications.

Date Published: 27 April 2011
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7977, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2011, 79770T (27 April 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.880614

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7977:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2011
Mehrdad N. Ghasemi-Nejhad, Editor(s)