Abstract
Authors have proposed a cantilever type of vibration energy harvester with piezocomposite for vibration condition monitoring applications of rotating machinery. Proposed energy harvester consisted of Macro-Fiber Composite (MFC) actuators in bimorph configuration. In this study, the efficiency of the vibration power transfer to the AC power of the resistive load is experimentally evaluated. Both base excitation force and acceleration of the vibration energy harvester were measured by using an impedance head. Then the input vibration power was experimentally evaluated from the measured excitation force and acceleration. The measured maximum AC output power is 37.96 microwatt with the resistive load 468.7 Kilo-Ohm at the resonant frequency of 27.97 (Hz) under the excitation amplitude level 0.71 (min/s rms). The 75% reduction of the AC output power as compared to the previous results is due to the additional dynamics introduced by the impedance head. At the present condition, input vibration power is 884.4 microwatt, and then the efficiency of vibration power transfer to the AC power is 4.29%.
