Comparison and evaluation of vibration-based piezoelectric power generators

Vibration energy regeneration with lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric (PZT) device has been reported by many researchers for many years. Various factors influence the energy regeneration efficiency of the PZT devices in converting the mechanical vibration energy to the electrical energy. This paper presents the analytical and experimental evaluation of energy regeneration efficiency of PZT devices through impedance matching method, energy regeneration efficiency of different shape of PZT devices, and effects of forced vibration input with concentrated load applied on the device to the PZT device´s energy regeneration ability. The results show that the impedance matching method has increased the energy regeneration efficiency to between 4% and 88% while triangular shape of PZT device produce a stable efficiency in the energy regeneration. Besides that, it becomes clear that energy regeneration of triangular PZT device as well as its efficiency is optimum with auxiliary mass of 2.6g.