Piezoelectric cantilever harvesters have a large power output at their natural frequency, but in some applications the frequency of ambient vibrations is different from the harvester’s frequency and/or ambient vibrations are periodic with some harmonic components. To cope with these operating conditions harvesters with integrated trimming devices (ITDs) are proposed. Some prototypes are developed with the aid of an analytical model and tested with an impulsive method. Results show that a small trimming device can lower the main resonance frequency of a piezoelectric harvester of the same extent as a larger tip mass and moreover generates at high frequency a second resonance peak. A multi-physics numerical FE model is developed for predicting the generated power and for performing stress-strain analysis of harvesters with ITDs. The numerical model is validated on the basis of experimental results. Several configurations of ITDs are conceived and studied. Numerical results show that harvesters with ITDs are able to generate relevant power at two frequencies owing to the particular shape of the modes of vibration. The stress in the harvesters with ITDs is smaller than the stress in the harvester with a tip mass trimmed to the same frequency.

This paper considers the principles of building a circuit model of film resistor cutting. The conductive resistive medium is defined with the component equations and the topology of the circuit model. A method of estimating the electric parameters of a resistor operating in the system with a measuring voltage source is shown. An equation system for the node voltages is defined, and the resistive layer parameters are analyzed as the circuit model structure changes during the cutting process.