Improving Energy Harvesting Efficiency by Vibration-Induced Stresses of Piezoelectric Patch Glued Tapered Beams

In this study, the effects of taper ratio and boundary conditions on the energy harvest performance of a beam element were examined. For these purpose, different taper ratio beams were analyzed numerically. The energy harvesting process was achieved by gluing a piezoelectric patch onto the cantilever tapered beam. Different taper ratio beams were designed and the effects of these taper ratio on stress change were investigated. In piezoelectric materials, when mechanical stress or strain is applied to the material, they generate electrical potential energy as a response. In order to increase the stresses on the tapered beam, the boundary condition was applied to be the thin edge of the tapered beam element in this study. In this way, the effect of tip mass was created and it was aimed to increase the stress magnitude due to vibration on the beam. Stress changes and displacement magnitudes of beams examined by applying load on beams having different taper ratio. The effect of these alterations on energy harvest efficiency was analyzed.Keywords: tapered beam, piezoelectiric material, energy harvesting, vibration-induced stress.