Design of a piezoelectric harvester fixed under the roof of a high rise building
Abstract A theoretical model for a piezoelectric harvester device is developed by an iteration method to determine the maximum energy harvested from vibration of high rise buildings. The piezoelectric harvester device is made of a cantilever fixed under the roof of a building and two groups of series piezoelectric generators connected by a shared shaft. The shaft is driven by a linking rod hinged on a proof mass on the tip of the cantilever. The influences of some practical considerations, such as the length of the cantilever, the radius of the proof mass, and the wall thickness of the main structure, on the root mean square (RMS) of the generated electric power and the energy harvesting efficiency of the piezoelectric harvester device are discussed. The research on the theoretical model provides a new method for an efficient and practical energy harvesting from high rise buildings by a piezoelectric harvester device fixed under their roofs.