Studying piezoelastic and piezomagnetoelastic configurations for different excitation frequencies in MEMS energy harvesters

Abstract

Typically two configurations are used for energy harvesting with different advantages: piezoelastic and piezomagnetoelastic. Best performance of the piezoelastic configuration is when the excitation frequency is close to the resonance frequency. If the input frequency slightly deviates from the natural frequency, the generated power is severely decreased. To tackle the problem, the piezomagnetoelastic configuration has been introduced. This configuration can be used near the non-resonant frequencies. This paper examines the effects of frequency and damping in the two above-mentioned configurations. The results of the study indicate that with increasing the damping, the harvested energy decreases. Also the results show that at higher frequencies, piezomagnetoelastic operation is better than the piezoelastic one; but at low frequencies, piezoelastic configuration is the better option.