Nonlinear Vibration-based Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Jean Zu

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

University of Toronto

Vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvesting opens up a promising avenue for power generation from ambient vibrations. The goal of piezoelectric energy harvesters is to replace batteries to supply power to small electronic devices. A conventional piezoelectric energy harvester uses a cantilever beam with piezoelectric layers attached. While simple and compact, conventional piezoelectric energy harvester can only scavenge vibrations effectively in a small range of frequency and in a single direction. Since ambient vibration sources vary in frequencies and directions, it is important to expand working bandwidth and multi-directionality of piezoelectric energy harvesters. This talk focuses on design and development of different nonlinear vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvesters. Geometric nonlinear configurations and magnet-induced structures are presented to improve functionality of piezoelectric energy harvesters. Theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that both geometric nonlinearities and magnetic force can effectively expand the bandwidth and harvest vibration energy multi-directionally.

Jean Zu graduated with BSc in 1984 and MSc in 1986 from Tsinghua University. After two years of working as a lecturer and researcher at Tsinghua University, she came to Canada, and obtained her PhD from the University of Manitoba in 1993. In January 1994, Dr. Zu joined the University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering as an Assistant Professor. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999 and to Full Professor in 2004. From June 2008 to June 2009, she served as Associate Chair of Research. She currently serves as Chair of the Department (from July 1, 2009).