Modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting from an L-shaped beam-mass structure with an application to UAV's [in special issue on Energy Harvesting]

Eturk, Alper, Renno, Jamil M. and Inman, Daniel J. (2009) Modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting from an L-shaped beam-mass structure with an application to UAV's [in special issue on Energy Harvesting]. Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures, 20 (5), 529-544. (doi:10.1177/1045389X08098096).

Abstract

Cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvesters have been extensively investigated in the literature of energy harvesting. As an alternative to conventional cantilevered beams, this article presents the L-shaped beam-mass structure as a new piezoelectric energy harvester configuration. This structure can be tuned to have the first two natural frequencies relatively close to each other, resulting in the possibility of a broader band energy harvesting system. This article describes the important features of the L-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester configuration and develops a linear distributed parameter model for predicting the electromechanically coupled voltage response and displacement response of the harvester structure. After deriving the coupled distributed parameter model, a case study is presented to investigate the electrical power generation performance of the L-shaped energy harvester. A direct application of the L-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester configuration is proposed for use as landing gears in unmanned air vehicle applications and a case study is presented where the results of the L-shaped — energy harvester — landing gear are favorably compared against the published experimental results of a curved beam configuration used for the same purpose.

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