Experimental investigation of charging batteries with piezoelectric beams

Daniel Silvério Campetti Nieto¹; Aline Souza de Paula¹

¹ Universidade de Brasília

doi:10.20906/CPS/CON-2016-1295

Resumo

Energy harvesting technology using piezoelectric materials has gained a lot of attraction in the last decades. In this context, a potential application consists in the power supply for low power device, such as some sensors. At first, this paper addresses an analysis of energy harvesting by a PZT piezoelectric beam harmonically excited and coupled to a purely resistive circuit. At this point both mechanical and electrical behaviors are discussed. After that, the piezoelectric beam is coupled to a battery charging circuit and its charging capacity is evaluated. At last, two piezoelectric beams are coupled and used to charge the same battery charging circuit. A comparison of charging performances with one and two piezoelectric beams is presented. The influence of resistive load, battery and beam coupling is discussed in the results.

Palavras-chave: Piezoelectric materials; Mechanical vibration; Energy harvesting; Charging batteries