Effect of cantilever shape on the power output of a piezoelectric bimorph generator

Abstract

This paper discusses the effect of the cantilever shape of piezoelectric bimorph bender on the power output. ANSYS® program was used to study the distribution of stress strain in each model design and MATLAB® program was used to simulate the effect of each variable on the output power. Triangular, rectangular and trapezoidal cantilevers were chosen with wide range of frequencies between (50Hz - 150 Hz) with the same input excitation conditions and same volumetric size, to analyze the effect of each design in the power. The result shows that maximum stress-strain value can be produced in the triangular shape with equal distribution on all the surface area. The analytical simulation showed that the maximum value of power of 5 mW at 85 Hz was produced by the triangular cantilever beam. Thus, triangular shape can produce maximum power comparing with the others. © 2010 IEEE.