TECHNICAL PAPER A new energy harvester using a cross-ply cylindrical membrane shell integrated with PVDF layers Y. Shahbazi • M. R. Chenaghlou • K. Abedi • M. J. Khosrowjerdi • A. Preumont Received: 2 October 2011 / Accepted: 8 June 2012 / Published online: 24 June 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract In this paper, we proposed a smart cylindrical membrane shell panel (SCMSP) model for vibration-based energy harvester. The SCMSP is made of an orthotropic elastic core covered by outer PVDF layers with transverse polarization vector. Electrodynamics governing equations of motion are derived by applying extended Hamilton’s principle. The governing equations are based on Donnell’s linear thin shell theory. The SCMSP displacement fields are expanded by means of double Fourier series satisfying immovable edges with free rotation boundary conditions and coupled system of linear partial differential equations are obtained. The discretized linear ordinary differential equations of motion are obtained using Galerkin method. The output power is taken as an indicating criterion for the generator. A parametric study for MEMS applications is conducted to predict the power generated due to radial harmonic ambient vibration. Optimal resistance value is also obtained for the particular electrode distribution that gives maximum output power. A low vibration amplitude (5 Pa), and a low-frequency (471.79 Hz) vibration source is targeted for the resonance operation, in which the output power of 0.4111 lW and peak-to-peak voltage of 0.2952 V are predicted. 1 Introduction Researchers have so far designed many vibration-based energy harvesters. Electrostatic, electromagnetic, and pie- zoelectric are three of the most common methods of con- verting mechanical vibration energy to electrical energy. The piezoelectric effect has been found to be the most effective of the three methods (Roundy et al. 2003). In recent years, the development of energy harvesting from vibrating structures with piezoelectric sensors mounted on the surface has been a major focus of many research groups. Piezoelectric materials have the ability to generate an electrical charge when subjected to an applied mechanical load such as pressure, force, or vibration. Piezoelectric materials have been used in different struc- tural elements and geometries for this purpose. One of the most common applications is the unimorph cantilever beam with a harmonic acceleration at the free end. In this method, in order to achieve considerable transverse dis- placements in the structure, the one-face constraint from the passive layer will create an asymmetry along the thickness axis which leads to conversion of in-plane deformation of the piezoelectric layer into transverse deflection of the beam. There have been some previous studies on cantilever configuration (Sodano et al. 2004; Roundy et al. 2005; Stephen 2006). Other harvesting configurations using piezoelectric elements include: ground shaking to human movements (Shenck and Paradiso 2001) and/or membrane structures harvesting energy from puls- ing pressure sources (Allen and Smits 2001). Also, the effect of different parameters and their optimization to maximize the harvested energy has been studied by several authors. Important contributions relating to the design of optimized piezoelectric vibration scavenging devices are noted in the study of (Benasciutti et al. 2010) in which two Y. Shahbazi (&)  M. R. Chenaghlou  K. Abedi Faculty of Civil Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran e-mail: y_shahbazi@sut.ac.ir M. J. Khosrowjerdi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran A. Preumont Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Department, Universite ´ Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium 123 Microsyst Technol (2012) 18:1981–1989 DOI 10.1007/s00542-012-1588-8