Design, Fabrication and Test on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters with Non-traditional Geometries

Download or read book Design, Fabrication and Test on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters with Non-traditional Geometries written by Lei Wang and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unimorph piezoelectric cantilevers with non-traditional surface geometries were investigated by theoretical calculations, finite element models, and sample tests. The study shows the average output voltage for piezoelectric cantilevers with same length and surface area is unique, no matter what the surface shapes are. Optimization on cross section was also conducted theoretically, which indicated a trapezoidal-shaped unimorph cross section can maximize the average output voltage. Several dome-shape piezoelectric devices were fabricated using PZT-epoxy sol-gel method and deposition from spin coating techniques. The surface area was examined by AFM and SEM images. Parameters like piezoelectric coefficients d31, d33 and capacitance were investigated; their trends with increasing polling voltages were also plotted and analyzed. A novel approach to ribbon-shaped PZT device on a flexible substrate was advanced at last.