A resonant frequency switching scheme of a cantilever based on polyvinylidene fluoride for vibration energy harvesting

A mismatch between the ambient frequency and the resonant frequency of the vibrational energy harvester causes decrease of the energy transduction efficiency. Therefore, there is a great demand for the resonant frequency tuning of the vibrational energy harvester. In this paper, a flexible PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) cantilever, which can switch its resonant frequency automatically and maintain the switched resonant frequency without energy consumption, is proposed. The proposed energy harvester is composed of cantilever couples which are similar with a seesaw structure. When the proposed energy harvester is excited by an external vibration and the excited frequency fluctuates, the cantilever couples can be horizontally moved by using the large deflection of a flexible cantilever. So the beam length of each cantilever which corresponds to each arm of the seesaw structure can be changed and the resonant frequency of the proposed energy harvester can be switched in real time. The proposed energy harvester was realized by application of a piezoelectric polymer, PVDF. Also, it was confirmed that the proposed energy harvester can switch its resonant frequency in several seconds without an additional energy source.