Harvesting power with a piezoelectric vibration powered generator using a full-wave rectifier conditioning circuit is experimentally\r\ncompared for varying sinusoidal, random, and sine on random(SOR) input vibration scenarios; the implications of source vibration\r\ncharacteristics on harvester design are discussed. The rise in popularity of harvesting energy from ambient vibrations has made\r\ncompact, energy dense piezoelectric generators commercially available. Much of the available literature focuses on maximizing\r\nharvested power through nonlinear processing circuits that require accurate knowledge of generator internal mechanical and\r\nelectrical characteristics and idealization of the input vibration source, which cannot be assumed in general application. Variations\r\nin source vibration and load resistance are explored for a commercially available piezoelectric generator. The results agree with\r\nnumerical and theoretical predictions in the previous literature for optimal power harvesting in sinusoidal and flat broadband\r\nvibration scenarios. Going beyond idealized steady-state sinusoidal and flat random vibration input, experimental SOR testing\r\nallows for more accurate representation of real world ambient vibration. It is shown that characteristic interactions from more\r\ncomplex vibration sources significantly alter power generation and processing requirements by varying harvested power, shifting\r\noptimal conditioning impedance, inducing voltage fluctuations, and ultimately rendering idealized sinusoidal and randomanalyses\r\nincorrect.
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