Electromechanical Modeling of a Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesting Microdevice Based on Multilayer Resonator for Air Conditioning Vents at Office Buildings

Piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting (pVEH) microdevices can convert the mechanical vibrations to electrical voltages. In the future, these microdevices can provide an alternative to replace the electrochemical batteries, which cause contamination due to their toxic materials. We present the electromechanical modeling of a pVEH microdevice with a novel resonant structure for air conditioning vents at office buildings. This electromechanical modeling includes different multilayers and cross-sections of the microdevice resonator as well as the air damping. This microdevice uses a flexible substrate and it does not include toxics materials. The microdevice has a resonant structure formed by multilayer beams and U-shape proof mass of UV-resin (730 μm thickness). The multilayer beams contain flexible substrates (160 μm thickness) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), two aluminum electrodes (100 nm thickness), and a ZnO layer (2 μm thickness). An analytical model is developed to predict the first bending resonant frequency and deflections of the microdevice. This model considers the Rayleigh and Macaulay methods, and the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. In addition, the electromechanical behavior of the microdevice is determined through the finite element method (FEM) models. In these FEM models, the output power of the microdevice is obtained using different sinusoidal accelerations. The microdevice has a resonant frequency of 60.3 Hz, a maximum deflection of 2.485 mm considering an acceleration of 1.5 m/s2, an output voltage of 2.854 V and generated power of 37.45 μW with a load resistance of 217.5 kΩ. An array of pVEH microdevices connected in series could be used to convert the displacements of air conditioning vents at office buildings into voltages for electronic devices and sensors.