Experimental Validation of Equivalent Circuit Modelling of the Piezo-Stripe Harvester Attached to the SFSF Rectangular Plate

Plate-like structures with attached piezo-patch elements are widely used in marine, aerospace and civil infrastructure applications to power small devices with low power demand or used for monitoring of vibration structures. In order to assess the feasibility of an energy harvesting system to generate power output from a harvester, an accurate electromechanical model of the piezo-patch harvester attached to a 2D structure in modal coordinates is required. Taking into account this fact, this study is focused on the analysis of the piezoharvester orientations on the SFSF (Simply Supported-Free-Simply Supported-Free) plate undergoing forced dynamic excitation. The results obtained from the numerical analysis of a smart structure led to determining quasi-optimal piezo-harvester location on the structure, and next, to determining a multi-mode representation of the equivalent circuit model. The experimental set-up carried out on the lab stand properly verified the parameters of the ECM model. Finally, the proposed approach can be used for the structural health monitoring of vibration of some 2D mechanical structures like the front wall of a dishwasher.