Piezoelectric-thermo-elastic coupling effect analysis for piezoelectric vibration energy harvester

The paper investigates the influence of piezoelectric-thermo-elastic coupling on the piezoelectric material in piezoelectric energy harvester for the flexural vibration. The coupled constitutive equations which present the mechanical, thermal and electric fields correlation are derived and the field parameters of displacement, temperature and output voltage are deduced. Then the frequency shift ratio and piezoelectric-thermo-elastic damping which is influenced by the irreversible heat energy dissipation are concluded. The comparison of piezoelectric structure is made between piezoelectric-thermo-elastic coupling fields and piezoelectric-elastic fields to determine the effect of temperature on piezoelectric structure. The numerical results with the help of MATLAB software are proposed graphically for intuitional presentation of the piezoelectric-thermo-elastic coupling effect on lead zirconate titanate (PZT)-5H structure of energy harvester.