Energy harvesting in variable stiffness composite piezolaminated plates

Harnessing ambient vibrational energy to power small and medium power electronic devices has been greatly explored in the past decade. Most of the available energy harvester models use straight fibers. Use of curvilinear fiber in bimorph energy harvester is explored in this computational study and its effect on tailoring the resonance frequency and extracted power is also investigated. The variable stiffness composite laminate (VSCL) bimorph energy harvester is modelled using first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and equations are derived using a nine noded isoparametric finite element. Curvilinear fiber based composite and PZT-5A materials are utilized for the analysis of harvester. Curvilinear fiber model is validated by comparing the natural frequency of VSCL plate with the already published results. Power frequency response function (PFRF), voltage frequency response function (VFRF) and relative tip motion frequency response function are plotted for a fixed curvilinear fiber orientation. Effects of plate aspect ratio on the peak power is also investigated.