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Modeling and Finite Element Analysis of a Micro

Energy Harvester
M. S. Bhuyan1, Burhanuddin Y. Majlis1 , Sawal H. M. Ali2, Masuri Othman3 and Md. Shabiul Islam1
1

Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
2
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
3
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Federal Government Administrative Centre
62662 Putrajaya, Malaysia.

AbstractRemote energy efficiency for wireless micro sensor

devices in multimedia, signal processing and communication
technologies is of paramount interest not only for ensuring
continuous network operation despite primary battery
limitations, but also for reducing carbon footprint in
communication systems. Increasing demands of energy supply
for micro devices, in particular, with the advance of complex
multimedia tasks, and shorter communication distances as in
sensors or machine-to-machine communications, energy cost of
signal processing becomes comparable to transmit energy.
Battery limitations can be partly alleviated by energy harvesting
technology that can collect various forms of energy such as solar,
wind, kinetic from ambient environment and convert into
electrical energy. In this work, device modeling and Finite
Element Analysis (FEA) of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems
(MEMS) Energy Harvester (EH) is presented. The MEMS-EH
converts ambient fluid-flow into electrical energy by piezoelectric
means. A layered flexible cantilever that vibrates due to the fluidflow Krmn Vortex Street generated in the wake of a D-shaped
bluff-body is modeled in COMSOL Multiphysics. Different
application modes were carried out to investigate various
response of the MEMS-EH and feasibility of the design.
Simulation of the MEMS-EH in Laminar fluid Flow Regime
showed von Mises effective stress 10.97 GPa and the maximum
displacement of the cantilever tip 60 m. The MEMS-EH has no
rotating part and without any tip mass. Design guideline of the
MEMS-EH model is presented in detail followed by simulation
results. From the analysis, the prospects of this fluid-flow driven
MEMS-EH device to function as an efficient kinetic energy
conversion into electricity for micro sensor is reported.
Keywords Finite Element Analysis (FEA); Energy Harvester
(EH); Fluid Induced Vibration (FIV) ; MEMS; Simulation

I.

INTRODUCTION

Networks of low-power micro sensor devices are

increasingly being incorporated in many applications ranging
from environmental monitoring to automobile automations.
However, the real implementation of this technology is limited
by the ability of remote power-up. Most of these sensor devices
operate full day night and could be in locations where primary
battery replacement is quite difficult and costly [1]. Therefore,
over the past decade, researchers are continuously investigating
for innovative miniaturized Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems
(MEMS) Energy Harvester (EH) device to convert ambient
mechanical energies such as vibrations or fluid flow, into

978-1-4799-1205-6/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

electricity [2]. Although at present, reported macro and meso

scale EH devices can produce power at milliwatt level,
however, insufficient power is still a major challenge while EH
device miniaturized into micro scale [3]. To overcome remote
sensor power-up problem, researchers to this end, have
examined many different methods of EH technologies
including simple combustion in micro-reactors, ambient
vibration harvesting by electrostatic transducers as well as
electromagnetic transducers, Micro-Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
(DMFCs) and micro-solar cell arrays etc. [4]. One of the most
studied methods to date, and one of the most appealing due to
its potential simplicity, involves the use of piezoelectric EH in
combination with ambient vibration. The integration of
piezoelectric MEMS-EH functionality with automotive sensor
devices becomes of interest because the evidence of large
amount of mechanical vibration that result during automotive
operation. Moreover, vibration-based energy harvesting is
especially attractive because the associated harvesters can be
scaled to incredibly small sizes and do not require the constant
addition of fuel, such as with combustion reactors and DMFCs.
Furthermore, unlike solar energy harvesting technology,
vibration-based energy harvesters may be packaged away from
the ambient environment to increase their device lifetimes and
they can be operated at all times throughout the day. In
addition, this environmentally friendly piezoelectric MEMSEH device can have life of more than twenty years that can
provide safety, security of supply and other benefits including
ongoing life-cycle expenses of automotive sensors [5].
COMSOL Multiphysics software allowed in selecting
custom material and properties for each part of the MEMS-EH
by inputting application environment specific values for the
material and other physical properties. Simulations using
different application modes in COMSOL is carried out to
investigate various mechanical analysis of the MEMS-EH
considering automotive environment. The mechanical outputs
of the modeled MEMS-EH are used to evaluate its
performance. Design guidelines are presented in detail
following simulation results. Some interesting aspects that
affect the MEMS-EH output are discussed.

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Fig. 2. Von Krmn vortex streets forming in the wake of a Bluff-body.

III.

Fig. 1. Illustration of the idea behind the operation of micro MEMS-EH.

II.

SIMULATION METHODOLOGY OF THE MEMS-EH

A. Model Description
The design of analyzed MEMS-EH is based on bi-layer
cantilever structure in the wake of a D-shaped bluff-body as
shown in Fig 1. The flexible cantilever layer and the supporting
D-shaped bluff-body are made from silicon, while Lead
Zirconate Titanate (PZT)-5A is used for piezoelectric film
layer, which is positioned on the top of the supporting layer
and is poled along the thickness direction resulting in
transverse (d31) operation mode described in Table 1.
B. Operation Principle
Fluid flows through a rectangle micro channel, enters
through inlet with a fully developed laminar flow velocity
profile, passes over the D-shaped bluff-body and leaves
through the outlet. Interaction between fluid and the bluff-body
creates pattern of periodic alternating vortex shedding referred
as von Karmans vortex street [5] as shown in Fig. 2. The
fluidic pressure impulse on the piezoelectric cantilever results
in short-term lift force. Since the vortices, shedding in a
periodic manner, the resulting lift forces on the cantilever also
vary periodically with time. Variations in the lift force induce
Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV), which enables damped
oscillation on the cantilever structure. Consequently, the
cantilever deflection causes mechanical stress within the PZT5H layer that results in the generation of electrical energy
based on piezoelectric effect.
TABLE I.

MEMS-EH AND MICRO FLUID CHANNEL IN COMSOL.

Modeled Segment

Micro Fluid Channel

Solid Cantilever

Peizoceramic layer
D-shaped bluff-body
D-shaped bluff-body

Property
Length
Width
Height
Length
Width
Thickness
Length
Width
Thickness
Diameter
Length

Range (m)
200
150
150
70
50
1
70
50
1
20
150

APPLICATION MODES IN COMSOL FOR THE MEMS-EH

MODEL
FEA model of the MEMS-EH is realized within COMSOL
Myltiphysics by employing Solid Stress-Strain with Fluid
Interaction application mode and Piezo Solid application mode
from MEMS Module Model Library. The Solid Stress-Strain
with Fluid Interaction application mode includes Moving Mesh
Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) and Incompressible
Navier-Stokes application modes by default.
A. Fluid Motion
Fluid part of the model is solved with Navier-Stokes
equations in spatial (deformed) coordinate system within the
flow channel. The fluid is incompressible and fluid motion is
governed by the following Navier-Stokes equations, solving for
the velocity field, u= (u, v) and the pressure, p: in the spatial
(deformed) moving coordinate system.
.

I+( u+( u) )]+(u. )u+

.

(1)
(2)

Where, I is the unit diagonal matrix, and F is the volume

force affecting the fluid. The model neglects gravitation and
other volume forces affecting the fluid, so F=0. is the
dynamic viscosity, is the density.
B. Structural Mechanics
The structural deformations are solved using elastic
formulation and nonlinear geometry formulation to allow large
deformation, which uses the reference frame and is only active
in the beam. The bluff-body is fixed in the fluid channel so that
it cannot move in any direction. All other boundaries
experience a load from the fluid, given by,
F

n.

(3)

Where n is the normal vector to the boundary. This load

represents a sum of pressure and viscous forces. In addition,
the predefined fluid load takes the area effect between the
reference frame for the solid and the moving ALE frame in the
fluid into account.
C. Moving Mesh
The motion of deformed mesh is modeled using Winslow
smoothing. The Moving Mesh application, which defines the
relation between the spatial frame and the reference frame,
solves mesh smoothing equations in the fluid domain using the
solid displacements to define the coordinate transformations
inside the beam. This mode confirms fluid domain deforming
along with the bluff structure.

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Load direction arrow

Triangular mesh element

D-bluff body fixed constrain

Fig. 4. Mesh of the MEMS-EH

Fig. 3. MEMS-EH fixed constraints (red arrows) and load (blue).

TABLE II.

MEMS-EH MATERIAL USED FOR THE FEA

ANALYSIS.
Subdomain
Property
Value
Density
1000
Fluid
Dynamic Viscosity
0.001
Youngs Module
8e6
D-shaped Bluff
body
Poissons Ratio
0.33
(Solid)
Density
7850
PZT-5H
Density
7500

IV.

Unit
kg/m3
Pa.s
Pa
kg/m3
kg/m3

MEMS-EH SUBDOMAIN AND BOUNDARY IN COMSOL

A. Subdomais Physics
MEMS-EH has total three subdomains; the channel through
fluid flows is the fluid domain, D-shape bluff body and PZT5H layer are another two solid subdomains. PZT-5H used is a
transversely isotropic material, which is a special class of
orthotropic materials, has same properties in one plane
(isotropic behavior) and different properties in the direction
normal to this plane. The stress-charge form is selected for the
constitutive equation. For the polarization in the z direction in a
3-D Cartesian coordinate system, respective data are used in
elasticity-matrix elements in the CE matrix, the piezoelectric
coupling-matrix in the e matrix, and the relative permittivities
in the rS matrix. Material properties parameters of the fluid,
D-shaped bluff body and piezoelectric material are provided in
Table 2.
B. Boundary Physics
Fig. 3 shows, in Structural Mechanics Application Mode,
boundary, D-shaped bluff body are constrained as fixed. In
contrast, the cantilever, protruding out of the trailing edge of
the D-shaped bluff body, is free, which experience a load
during fluid flows. This load represents a sum of pressure and
viscous forces. In Moving Mesh Application Mode, boundary
conditions control displacement of moving mesh with respect
to initial geometry. Motion of deformed mesh is modeled using
Winslow smoothing. At boundaries of the bluff body, this
displacement is the same as the Structural Mechanics
deformation. At exterior boundaries of flow domain, it is set to
zero in all directions. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved
in the spatial (deformed) coordinate system. In the Piezo Solid
Application mode, Zero charge/symmetry is selected for all the
boundaries except the upper and lower surface of the PZT-5H,
which is grounded. At the inlet, the model uses a fully
developed laminar flow. Zero pressure is applied at the outlet.
At all other boundaries, no-slip conditions are applied.

C. Mesh Generation
A mesh is a partition of the geometry model into small
units of simple shapes. The MEMS-EH follows 3D meshing
techniques. Due to MEMS-EHs thin layer cantilever,
advanced meshing technique is used to avoid geometric scale
variations problem. Mesh quality is considered poor if
dropping to less than 0.1 in a 3D geometries model. MEMSEH scale factor 1.0 was assigned for in the x, y, and z
directions. It should be noted that the FEM analyses of the
MEMS-EH was performed with the tetrahedral global mesh
with minimum element quality 0.3061. The mesh generator
partitions the sub-domains of the MEMS-EH into triangular
mesh elements with 23865 Degree of Freedom (DoF). Total
number of elements (tetrahedral) was 4152 and the number of
boundary elements was found (Triangular) 2384. These values
represented the maximum size able to accurately mesh the
smallest feature of the device (piezoelectric layer). As a result,
control meshes and/or finer meshes are unnecessary as the
default sizes prove to be more than adequate. Fig. 4 shows the
mesh of the MEMS-EH.
V.

FEA SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE MEMS-EH

The fluid-flow driven MEMS-EH has been analyzed using

COMSOLs different application mode to simulate various
mechanical and electrical outputs for robust design
consideration. Fig. 5 shows the flow channel that expressing
velocity field as a directional vector. The changes in the fluidflow due to the D-shaped bluff body have a clear visible effect
on the cantilever and fluid-flow itself. Top and bottom surfaces
of the cantilever experience increased viscous and pressure

Fig. 5. The velocity field and the flow lines at flow velocity of 1.5 m/s.

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tip displacement

von Mises effective stress maximum

Fig. 6. The von Mises effective stress on cantilever.

forces that cased cantilever deformation. Fluid-flow domain

has changed considerably. The color and direction of the
streamlines indicate the velocity and the direction of the flow.
Fig. 6 shows that the static analysis of von Mises effective
stress maximum value of 10.97 GPA. , which, compared with
the materials yield strength results in high utilization factor.
Transient Analysis of the MEMS-EH was carried out at
excitation frequency of 500 Hz. The purpose of this analysis
was to find the transient response from a harmonic load during
the first five periods (10 ms). This analysis solves for the
transient solution of the displacements and velocities as
functions of time. Rayleigh damping, where damping
parameters were specified that are proportional to the mass
(dM) and stiffness (dK). Plot in Fig. 7 shows the
displacement of the cantilever tip, at ambient pressure at xdisplacement (dashed line), y-displacement (dashed-dotted
line), and z-displacement (solid line). Frequency response
analysis of the MEMS-EH with Rayleigh damping was to find
the transient response with an excitation frequency in the range
350650 Hz. Fig. 8 shows the tip displacement amplitude as a
function of the excitation frequency range.
VI.

Fig. 7. Cantilever tip displacement (Transient Analysis)

CONCLUSION

In summary, a FEA modeling of a MEMS-EH without any

rotating part that couples mechanical, piezoelectric and fluid
domain to convert fluid-flow driven kinetic energy into
electricity is presented in this paper. COMSOL Mechanical
analysis results confirm the probability of the fluid flow based
MEMS-EH. The addition of the D-shaped bluff-body made
significant improvements in vortex shedding frequency
exerting on the cantilever, hence greatly magnified the
cantilever deflection. This design example just begin to touch
on the large potential for micro energy harvesting from vortex
shedding to provide power for many beneficial sensors that
could be used in and around fluid-flow ducts. Benefits of this
kind of MEMS-EH device can be seen as a micro power source
for sensors monitoring temperature and humidity usually
operating on a low duty cycle with as little as 1-20 W. Other
application areas such as liquid or gaseous water pipes and
natural gas lines also exhibit similar characteristics. This model
provides relatively high performance at low fluid-flow
velocity, and will ideally provide the necessary performance
over a wider range of fluid-flow velocities.

Fig. 8. Displacement amplitude at excitation frequency range of 350-650 Hz

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