Energy harvesting with piezoelectric cantilever

Energy harvesting with the piezoelectric cantilever was studied under vibration environment. A theoretical model of piezoelectric cantilever was developed to determine the magnitude of power. The results predicted by the theoretical model were validated by the experimental data. Compared with the rectangular layer piezoelectric cantilever, the trapezoidal piezoelectric cantilever generated higher power with the same force and the volume of PZT. A maximal output power of about 24.2 mW can be obtained from the trapezoidal piezoelectric cantilever at the operating frequency of 130 Hz across a resistive load of 80kOmega with a cyclic stress of 1N.