Multi-objective shape design optimization of piezoelectric energy harvester using artificial immune system

Energy harvesting is about deriving energy from environment and converting into electricity. In this paper, optimal design of a cantilever piezoelectric energy harvester is presented with the aim to capture electrical power from a vibratory feeder in mining industry. Rayleigh–Ritz method is utilized for the modeling of the cantilever piezoelectric, taking into account possible variation in the width, nonequivalent layer lengths and thickness for unimorph and bimorph configurations. Innovatively, intelligent artificial immune system is utilized for multi-objective optimization of the shape parameters of the system. To verify the presented analytical shape optimization method, finite element analysis of the designed system is also presented, to investigate the output voltage and stress distribution along the piezoelectric layer. Moreover, the experimental setup is generated and verification tests are performed to derive frequency response diagram of the system. The obtained results are encouraging, indicating good agreement between experiments, FE analysis and theoretical results.