Proceedings of the euspen International Conference – Delft - June 2010 Experimental Characterisation of Off-the-shelf Vibration Energy Scavengers D. Blažević, S. Zelenika * , G. Gregov University of Rijeka – Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering Design, Vukovarska 58, 51000 Rijeka, CROATIA dablazev@riteh.hr Abstract The behaviour of off-the-shelf commercial energy scavengers is difficult to model and to correlate to the requirements of the foreseen applications due to lack of information about their electromechanical properties. Experimental set-ups are thus developed with the aim of assessing Young’s modules and optimal resistive loads. The obtained results are presented in terms of power vs. applied resistive loads. 1 Introduction In order to be able to properly design vibration energy harvesters, their behaviour in terms of dynamics response, electromechanical coupling and charge distribution, has to be accurately studied [1-3]. Some vibration energy scavengers are already commercially available but their usage can be limited due to lack of relevant data on the values of their electromechanical characteristics. This makes the behaviour of commercial scavengers hard to model. Performance of commercially available piezoelectric vibration energy scavengers can then be verified only with results obtained from developed experimental set-ups. Repetitive bending tests on a tensile machine allow determining the equivalent bending stiffness of the used scavengers. Dynamics tests make then possible obtaining results in terms of power vs. applied resistive loads. The respective experimental set-ups are described and their suitability to be used for the foreseen applications is proven. This will make possible, in the following phase of the work, to develop custom vibration energy harvesting devices with optimized performances in terms of power outputs considering various constraints. * The performed work is supported by the "Ultra-high precision compliant devices for micro and nanotechnology applications" project of the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports.