# Experimentally Validated Modelling of a Base-Excited Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester Connected to a Full Wave Rectified Load

## TL;DR

This paper models a piezoelectric energy harvester with real diode behavior to produce stable DC output, validated through experiments.

## Contribution

The study introduces a realistic diode model in energy harvester simulations, improving accuracy for low-voltage conditions.

## Key findings

- Simulated and measured resonant voltage discrepancies are less than 10% on average.
- Resonant frequency discrepancies are less than 1% on average.
- The Shockley diode model proves reliable despite omitting dynamic behavior.

## Abstract

Practical applications of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting systems are required to produce a stable DC output through the nonlinear process of AC-DC rectification. In most simulation studies of such systems, the diodes have been idealised as switches, an assumption that is valid only if the vibration-induced voltage is high enough, which is frequently not the case in practice. This paper presents an experimentally validated simulation of a base excited vibration energy harvester connected to a full wave rectified load, combining the analytical modal transformation of the Euler–Bernoulli model of a piezoelectric beam with the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic of a real (non-ideal) diode. Three types of diodes with significantly different model parameters sourced from industry-standard datasets are considered. Discrepancies between simulated and measured resonant voltage levels are found to be less than 10% on average, and the discrepancy in resonant frequency is less than 1%, demonstrating the reliability of the Shockley diode model despite its omission of the dynamic behaviour of the diode.