Investigating the Effect of Proof Mass on the Performance of a Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Nowadays harvesting energy from the environment has become an interesting topic for researchers. Various methods for obtaining alternative energy resources include wind power, solar energy, ocean waves, etc. The emergence of electrical devices with low power consumption led to innovations in supplying the energy of these devices. One of these approaches in this field is harvesting energy from the unwanted environmental vibrations using piezoelectric materials. The present article examined the amount of voltage and energy harvesting value from a cantilever beam with a piezoelectric layer that is affected by the base vibration. To carry out this study an Euler-Bernoulli beam assumptions was used. Besides, the impact of the proof mass was assessed with respect to the resonance frequencies, voltage, and output power properties. The finite element method was employed and the model was analyzed in the COMSOL Multiphysics software. The results were verified using the works of other researchers in this field.