Energy harvesting from piezoelectric strips attached to systems under random vibrations

The possibility of adopting vibration-powered wireless nodes has been largely investigated in the last years. Among the available technologies based on the piezoelectric effect, the most common ones consist of a vibrating beam covered by electroactive layers. Another energy harvesting strategy is based on the use of piezoelectric strips attached to a hosting structure subjected to dynamic loads. The hosting structure, for example, can be the system to be equipped with wireless nodes. Such strategy has received few attentions so far and no analytical studies have been presented yet. Hence, the original contribution of the present paper is concerned with the development of analytical solutions for the electrodynamic analysis and design of piezoelectric polymeric strips attached to relatively large linear elastic structural systems subjected to random vibrations at the base. Specifically, it is assumed that the dynamics of the hosting structure is dominated by the fundamental vibration mode only, and thus it is reduced to a linear elastic single-degree-of-freedom system. On the other hand, the random excitation at the base of the hosting structure is simulated by filtering a white Gaussian noise through a linear second-order filter. The electromechanical force exerted by the polymeric strip is negligible compared with other forces generated by the large hosting structure to which it is attached. By assuming a simplified electrical interface, useful new exact analytical expressions are derived to assess the generated electric power and the integrity of the harvester as well as to facilitate its optimum design.