Optimization of the shaping function of a tapered piezoelectric energy harvester using tabu continuous ant colony system

During the past years, the development of piezoelectric energy harvesters is extensively increased for providing the required energy of sensor nodes. It has been proven that changing the beam’s cross-section along its length direction may lead to extract more power with less mass. In this article, a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm called tabu continuous ant colony system is employed to optimize the tapered piezoelectric energy harvester in a fast and course manner. The exponential and fourth-order polynomial functions are considered as shaping functions for tapering the beam’s width along its length direction. An experiment is also set up to evaluate the performance of the optimization algorithm for the case of exponential shaping function. Finally, the algorithm is applied to optimize the voltage and power per mass of both shaping functions of the tapered piezoelectric energy harvester at the specified excitation frequency.