Abstract
A piezoelectric Macro fiber composite (MFC) materials developed in the last decade found widespread applications such as
vibration sensing, actuation and structural health monitoring. Unlike conventional ceramic piezoelectric materials (PZT),
these composites show many advantages such as flexibility, reliability and high actuation capacity. However, increasing their
energy harvesting capabilities still remains a challenge. Modeling and simulation of electrical energy harvesters using MFC
patches provide a mean for geometrical optimization and appropriate choice of the MFC composite. This paper proposes a
linear analytical model for prediction of the electro-mechanical response of bimorph harvesters using MFC patches.
Homogenization technique is used to describe the equivalent piezoelectric properties of the composite structure of the
MFC patch. This paper investigates the effect of the volume fraction of the fibers and the material choice of the piezoelectric
fibers and epoxy matrix on the generated electrical power. It has been found that an increased fiber volume fraction causes
a decrease of the voltage, the power and the velocity amplitudes for a range of load resistance. However, an increase in the
fiber volume fraction FVF is achieved by an increase of the current amplitude for a range of load resistance. Maximum
amount of power is generated by the bimorph MFC harvester for an FVF of 86% which corresponds to the reference
configuration. The piezoelectric fiber material has a significant influence on the output power. In fact, the SONOX-P502
generated the greatest electrical power. However, the material of the matrix has a negligible effect on the generated power.
