Charging Behaviors of a Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

1-2025

DOI

10.2514/6.2025-1742

Publication Title

AIAA SciTech 2025 Forum

Pages

15 pp.

Conference Name

AIAA SciTech 2025 Forum, January 6-10 2025, Orlando, FL

Abstract

We report the recent comprehensive study of the charging process from a piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH), through an AC/DC rectifier, to a super-capacitor to the aerospace community. In this study a platform incorporates four custom-designed identical flex tensional piezoelectric energy harvesters (FPEHs) to generate 4 identical sinusoidal voltage power source was successfully developed. The four FPEHs served as power sources and were configured in three different ways: (a) four in parallel (4P), (b) two in parallel followed by series (2P/2S), and (c) four in series (4S), providing varying voltage and current levels. The full picture of the dynamic voltage redistribution in the PEH during the charging process was successfully captured: upon connecting the FPEH to the rectifier and the charged super-capacitor, i) the voltages in PEHs dropped to approximately ±0.7 V when the super-capacitor was initially uncharged; ii) the neutral/central voltage in the PEHs aligned with the half of the voltage of the super-capacitor, and iii) the negative peak of the voltage in the PEH equaled the negative forward voltage of the diode, while the positive voltage peak equaled the voltage of the supercapacitor plus the forward voltage of the rectifier. The critical charging voltage is the voltage in the super-capacitor plus twice of the forward voltage of the diode. When the peak voltage of the PEH is great than half of the critical charging voltage, the PEH start charge the super-capacitor. The charge efficiency reaches maximum, which is the ratio of the level of the voltage in the charged super-capacitor over the critical voltage, when the peak voltage of PEH equals the critical voltage. This study provides valuable insights into piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies, deepening our understanding of PEH charging behaviors, and paves the way for improved energy storage efficiency. This study also opens the door on developing differential equations and advanced computational methods for more accurate modeling.

Rights

Copyright © 2025 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2025-1742

Original Publication Citation

Xu, T. B., & Zhao, B. (2025). Charging behaviors of a piezoelectric energy harvester. In AIAA SciTech 2025 Forum (p. 1742). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2025-1742

ORCID

0000-0002-3375-3653 (Xu)

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