Abstract

In the past decade, there has been rapid development in piezoelectric energy harvester due to its limited application and low output power. This paper critically reviews the strategies implemented to improve the power density for low-frequency applications. These strategies include piezoelectric material selection as well as optimisations of shape, size and structure. The review also focuses on the recent advances in multi-modal, nonlinear and multi-directional energy harvesting. Based on the comprehensive summary of the normalised power density at 1g acceleration, it was found that most works fell in the second quadrant of low frequency and high power density. The maximum value was around 1mW/mm3 /g. Adding an extension of beam or spring to the conventional piezoelectric beam could enhance the normalised power density dramatically. Additionally, the multi-modal energy harvester exhibits broader bandwidth when its multiple resonance peaks get closer. The findings indicate that the anticipated performance of a piezoelectric harvester can be attained by achieving the trade-off between output power and bandwidth. To achieve high performance at low frequency, the following factors are essential: excellent material characteristics optimised geometry for high strain energy density, excellent flexibility, high excitation amplitude and broad bandwidth.