This paper presents the design, fabrication, and testing of a novel bistable piezoelectric energy harvester dedicated to vibration energy harvesting in the direction of gravity. Its unique feature is that the bistability is realized by combining the elastic potential energy of a bridge-type compliant mechanism and the gravitational potential energy of a proof mass together, which simplifies the preloading mechanism design. As a result, its potential energy traps exhibit less inconsistency under the excitation in gravity direction, which leads to easier skipping between the two energy wells. To evaluate the performance of the proposed harvester, the analytical model is established. Parametric study is conducted to investigate the influence of the structural parameters on the harvester’s performance. Static structural analysis is performed to predict the actual performance of the proposed harvester, which is verified by conducting simulation studies. A prototype device was fabricated for experimental testing. In addition, a figure of merit has been introduced for performance comparison versus existing designs. Experimental results indicate that the proposed device is more suitable for scavenging the energy in gravity direction.

本文介绍了一种新型的双稳态压电能量收集器的设计，制造和测试，该收集器专门用于重力方向上的振动能量收集。它的独特特征是通过将桥式柔顺机构的弹性势能和检测质量的重力势能结合在一起来实现双稳性，从而简化了预加载机构的设计。结果，它的势能陷阱在重力方向上的激励下表现出的不一致性较小，这导致在两个能阱之间更容易跳过。为了评估建议的收割机的性能，建立了分析模型。进行参数研究以研究结构参数对收割机性能的影响。进行静态结构分析以预测建议的收割机的实际性能，该性能已通过进行模拟研究得到了验证。制造了用于实验测试的原型设备。此外，还引入了品质因数用于与现有设计进行性能比较。实验结果表明，所提出的装置更适合于清除重力方向上的能量。