Analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesting device with adjustable resonance frequency

This paper presents an analytic method that adjusts resonance frequency of a piezoelectric vibration energy harvester. A mathematical model that estimates resonance frequency of cantilever is also proposed. Through moving an attached mass and changing its weight on the cantilever beam, resonance frequency of adopted piezoelectric device can be adjusted to match the frequency of ambient vibration sources, which is critical in order to harvest maximum amount of energy. The theoretical results are validated by experiments that move different masses along experimental cantilever beams. The results demonstrate that resonance frequency can be adjusted by an attached mass located at different positions on the cantilever beam. Different combinations of operational conditions that harvest maximum amount of energy are also discussed in this paper.