Analysis and Simulation of Angle Effect of L-Shaped Beam Branches on the Performance of Multi-Resonant Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

In recent years, the continuous development in nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) devices has increased the efficiency of self powered electronic devices by harvesting energy from more than one resonant frequency. In literature, various techniques and structures of non-linear PEH devices have been proposed. This paper is mainly considered L-shaped and horizontal beam branches based nonlinear PEH device for study purposes. This device is associated with the advantages of low acceleration (0.2g) operating condition and more than one resonant peaks below 9 Hz frequency range. In presented paper, the behaviour of nonlinear PEH device is examined corresponding to the changes in positioning angles of perpendicular part of L-shaped beams using COMSOL Multiphysics software. From this simulation study, it has been observed that by keeping 90 degree angle between perpendicular and horizontal parts of L-shaped branches, the multi-resonant device resonates at 6.4 Hz, 6.9 Hz and 7.4 Hz resonant frequencies with improved value of voltage (27.8 V, 9.9 V, 23.6 V) and power response (6.4 Hz, 6.9 Hz, 7.4 Hz).