Effect of Porosity on Energy Harvesting Performance of 0.5Ba(Ca0.8Zr0.2)O3 − 0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 Ceramics: A Numerical Study

Finite element analysis is conducted on a barium calcium zirconate titanate 0.5Ba(Ca0.8Zr0.2)O8−0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3(BCZT) material to investigate its energy harvesting performance at different porosities. Porosities are gradually increased to 25% in steps of 5. BCZT piezoceramics attached to a host cantilever beam in unimorph configuration and subjected to base vibration are considered for the present study. Both d31 and d33 modes are considered. Power is harvested using a load resistance optimized with the structure's natural frequency of vibration. Up to a certain porosity level, an increase in voltage and power is observed in the system. An increment in voltage by ≈95% in d31 mode and ≈119% in d33 mode is observed at 10% porosity. Power increased by 50% in d31 mode and by 53% in d33 mode at 5% porosity compared with the nonporous material. The present study explores the use of porous barium calcium zirconium titanate ceramics for energy harvesting applications, calculates effective elastic properties using a homogenization technique to convert porous piezoceramic to equivalent homogeneous material, and demonstrates increments in voltage and power with porosity up to a certain level due to relatively different decreasing rate of piezo‐coefficients and relative permittivity.