Analysis of multifunctional piezoelectric metastructures for low-frequency bandgap formation and energy harvesting

Abstract

Vibration-based energy harvesting is a growing field for generating low-power electricity to use in wireless electronic devices, such as the sensor networks used in structural health monitoring applications. Locally resonant metastructures, which are structures that comprise locally resonant metamaterial components, enable bandgap formation at wavelengths much longer than the lattice size, for critical applications such as low-frequency vibration attenuation in flexible structures. This work aims to bridge the domains of energy harvesting and locally resonant metamaterials to form multifunctional structures that exhibit both low-power electricity generation and vibration attenuation capabilities. A fully coupled electromechanical modeling framework is developed for two characteristic systems and their modal analysis is presented. Simulations are performed to explore the vibration and electrical power frequency response maps for varying electrical load resistance, and optimal loading conditions are presented. Case studies are presented to understand the interaction of bandgap formation and energy harvesting capabilities of this new class of multifunctional energyharvesting locally resonant metastructures. It is shown that useful energy can be harvested from locally resonant metastructures without significantly diminishing their dramatic vibration attenuation in the locally resonant bandgap. Thus, integrating energy harvesters into a locally resonant metastructure enables a new potential for multifunctional locally resonant metastructures that can host self-powered sensors.

Graded elastic metasurface for enhanced energy harvesting

“…Piezoelectric energy harvesting is driven by the deformation of the host structure due to mechanical or acoustic vibrations that convert to an electrical potential via embedded piezoelectric materials. To increase harvester efficiency, using ideas based around structuring surfaces, several approaches such as creating a parabolic acoustic mirror, point defects in periodic phononic crystals and acoustic funnels have been employed [28][29][30][31]; lenses to concentrate narrow band vibrations have been proposed using phononic crystals [32][33][34], ideas based around localised defect states [35], and resonant metamaterials endowed with piezoelectric inserts have appeared very recently [36]. Our aim here is to complement these studies by using a graded array to create a metawedge [37], and introduce piezoelectric elements into the array, this addresses one of the main challenges in energy harvesting which is to achieve broadband energy production from ambient vibration spectra.…”

Topological Rainbow Trapping for Elastic Energy Harvesting in Graded Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Systems

“…This can affect the overall power density of the system as well as the circuit interface, which becomes more complex with respect to single-mode harvesters. Conversely, it is worthwhile to appreciate that multimodal schemes can be well integrated with metamaterial concepts, leading to truly multifunctional designs [82] with enhanced energy-harvesting capabilities.…”

Simultaneous energy harvesting and vibration attenuation in piezo-embedded negative stiffness metamaterial

“…Resonant metamaterial components facilitate band gap formation for long wavelength approximation, which is useful for vibration attenuation. Based on this, Sugino and Erturk (2018) proposed multifunctional piezoelectric metastructures for low-frequency band gap formation and energy harvesting. They concluded that energy can be harvested from locally resonant metastructures without significantly affecting vibration attenuation in the locally resonant band gaps.…”