Hybrid energy harvesting from vibration and temperature gradient by PZT and PMN-0.25PT ceramics

Energy harvesting is the act of scavenging small amounts of power from the ambient energy resources. Such ambient energy can come from various green energy sources such as solar, thermal, wind, and kinetic energy. These amounts of energy can power up sensor nodes and therefore reduce the wiring complications or eliminate the need of changing batteries frequently. Two of the most popular methods for harvesting energy consisted of the application of piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials in scavenging energy from vibration and thermal gradients, respectively. This paper presents a hybrid harvesting technique by piezoelectric and pyroelectric effect, simultaneously. The concept of method and theoretical analysis is presented in details for parallel and series SSHI (synchronize switch harvesting on inductor). Numerical results are examined and show better performance compare with piezogenerators for PZT and PMN-0.25PT elements. In this paper it has been proven that hybrid energy harvesting energy by pyroelectric and piezoelectric effect, simultaneously, increases almost 38 % and 53 % more power as it does harvest by just piezoelectric effect. Followed by mentioned analyses the effect of three important parameters - temperature amplitude, vibration amplitude, and frequency- are examined. The more effective harvesting method and material is proposed in the final part of the paper.