A passively tunable mechanism for a dual bimorph energy harvester with variable tip stiffness and axial load

This paper presents a novel vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvester capable of passively tuning its resonant frequency to a wide range of frequencies. The device comprises a dual bimorph with a mass at its free end. A novel sliding mechanism, consisting of two oblique springs connected to the tip mass, is proposed to widen the resonance frequency of the device even to very low frequencies. The application of two oblique springs results in an additional stiffness and axial load that are introduced within the system, such that the resonance frequency of the device is now a function of both the stiffness and axial load associated with the spring forces. An operator can manually change the resonance frequency of the harvester just by small adjustments of the sliding mechanism. Further, the device allows one to tune the resonance frequency of the beam to match very low frequencies without the requirement of having a large proof mass. The analytical solution of an axially loaded cantilevered piezoelectric energy harvester with tip stiffness, using Euler–Bernoulli beam assumptions, is presented. A parametric case study is presented to demonstrate the performance of the device. (paper)