Design of a quad-stable piezoelectric energy harvester capable of programming the coordinates of equilibrium points

In this study, a novel quad-stable energy harvester (QEH) is developed, in which its coordinates of equilibrium points can be user-defined like programming. This programmable feature distinguishes the proposed QEH from all reported magnet-type or buckling-type vibration energy harvesters. It has the advantage that it is easy to develop a high-performance QEH by appropriately programming these coordinate points and customizing a personalized QEH for different vibration environments. The dynamic model is established by the Ritz method and the Lagrange equation. The analytical steady periodic response is obtained by the average method. When the excitation acceleration is 2 m/s², the peak power is 575 μW at 8.5 Hz. Also, the influence of the coordinate arrangement of the equilibrium points on the energy harvesting performance is studied. A formula that can quickly determine the equilibrium point coordinates is given, and the QEH designed according to this formula has superior performance. At last, the performance of the designed QEH is compared with other reported vibration energy harvesters. It shows that the QEH has a high average output power (287 μW), high normalized power density (59.8 μW/cm³/g²), and wide operating frequency range (8.4 Hz) among these harvesters.