A highly efficient simulation technique for piezoelectric energy harvesters

This paper presents a new numerical technique which is aimed at obtaining fast and accurate simulations of piezoelectric beams, used in inertial energy harvesting MEMS. The execution of numerical analyses is greatly important in order to predict the actual behaviour of MEMS device and to carry out the optimization process on the basis of Design of Experiments (DOE) techniques. In this paper, a refined, yet simple, model is proposed with reference to the multi-physics problem of piezoelectric energy harvesting by means of laminate cantilevers. The proposed model is calibrated and validated with reference to 3D finite element analyses.