Design Scalability Study of the Γ-Shaped Piezoelectric Harvester Based on Generalized Classical Ritz Method and Optimization

This paper studies the design scalability of a Γ-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester (ΓEH) using the generalized classical Ritz method (GCRM) and differential evolution algorithm. The generalized classical Ritz method (GCRM) is the advanced version of the classical Ritz method (CRM) that can handle a multibody system by assembling its equations of motion interconnected by the constraint equations. In this study, the GCRM is extended for analysis of the piezoelectric energy harvesters with material and/or orientation discontinuity between members. The electromechanical equations of motion are derived for the PE harvester using GCRM, and the accuracy of the numerical simulation is experimentally validated by comparing frequency response functions for voltage and power output. Then the GCRM is used in the power maximization design study that considers four different total masses—15 g, 30 g, 45 g, 60 g—to understand design scalability. The optimized ΓEH has the maximum normalized power density of 23.1 × 103 kg·s·m−3 which is the highest among the reviewed PE harvesters. We discuss how the design parameters need to be determined at different harvester scales.