Boosting the performance of energy harvesters subject to white Gaussian vibrations through impedance matching solutions

• Published in: 2022 IEEE International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2022 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Europe (EEEIC / I&CPS Europe) pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Song, Kailing, Bonnin, Michele, Traversa, Fabio L., Bonani, Fabrizio
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 28.06.2022
• Subjects: Energy harvesting; equivalent circuits; Gaussian noise; Impedance matching; load matching; nonlinear dynamical systems; nonlinear resonance; piezoelectric energy harvester; Piezoelectric transducers; power efficiency; Power factor correction; Power system dynamics; RLC circuits; Vibrations
• DOI: 10.1109/EEEIC/ICPSEurope54979.2022.9854714

We discuss models of piezoelectric energy harvesters for scavenging energy from random mechanical vibrations, represented by a white Gaussian noise source. We show that circuit theory can be applied to design a matching network, to be interposed between the piezoelectric transducer and the load, able to increase the power transferred to the latter. The second order matching network is compared with a previously proposed solution, based on power factor correction, implemented through a single reactive element. We show that the new architecture boosts the harvested power with respect to the simple, unmatched resistive load, by a factor larger than 9, and with respect to the power factor correction solution by more than 17%.