A unified N-SECE strategy for highly coupled piezoelectric energy scavengers

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel vibration energy harvesting strategy based on an extension of the Synchronous Electric Charge Extraction (SECE) approach, enabling both the maximization of the harvested power and a consequent bandwidth enlargement in the case of highly coupled/lightly damped piezoelectric energy harvesters. The proposed strategy relies on the tuning of the frequency of the energy extraction events, which is either N times greater than the vibration frequency (Multiple SECE case, N > 1) or 1/N times smaller (Regenerative SECE, N < 1). We first prove analytically than increasing or decreasing N both lead to a damping reduction. While N has no impact on the system's resonance frequency in the Regenerative case (N < 1), we show that this resonant frequency becomes a function of N in the Multiple SECE case (N > 1). Experimental results on a highly coupled/lowly damped piezoelectric harvester (k^2= 0.44, Q_m = 20) demonstrates the potential of this strategy, leading to 257% harvested power improvement compared to SECE (N = 1). and the possibility to tune the resonant frequency on a range as large as 35% of the short-circuit resonant frequency of the harvester.