Enhance piezoelectric energy harvesting by stiffness compensation using magnetic effect

Piezoelectric transducers are widely employed in vibration-based energy harvesting schemes. The efficiency of piezoelectric transducers fundamentally hinges upon the electro-mechanical coupling effect. While at the material level such coupling is decided by material property, at the device level it is possible to vary and improve the energy conversion capability between the electrical and mechanical regimes by a variety of means. In this research, a new approach of compensating the effective flexibility of piezoelectric transducers by using non-contact magnetic effect is explored. It is shown that properly configured and positioned magnet arrays can induce approximately linear attraction force that can improve the electro-mechanical coupling of the piezoelectric energy harvester. Analytical and experimental studies are carried out to demonstrate the enhancement.

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