Bio-inspired metasurface skin to enhance the performance of blue energy harvesting

Abstract

Interest in blue energy harvesting systems is rapidly growing and becoming widespread given its promise as a renewable and clean energy source. Blue energy harvesting from raindrop impact would allow low-power systems to operate in remote areas without the need for battery replacement and related maintenance. Insufficient power output is the most critical limitation that makes the conventional types of rain energy harvester (REH) typically unusable or/and infeasible.To overcome this limitation, a bio-inspired metasurface skin is proposed in this paper to serve as the membrane for a piezoelectric type of REHs. The proposed metasurface membrane is comprised of a system of biaxial-cuts inspired by snake scale. The power enhancement of the bio-inspired harvester with a metamembrane was studied and compared to its equivalent conventional harvester with a plain membrane when the substrate was under raindrop pressure. The Finite Element Model (FEM) results showed that the metamembrane could transfer more stress deformation to the piezo-element layer, thus enhancing power output. This is attributable to the metasurface membrane polarizing the PVDF better than a conventional plain membrane because of its higher ability to stretch the PVDF. The proposed bio-inspired harvester could be used for different public facilities such as tents, umbrellas, awnings, temporary roofs, coverings, and tarps to provide power for sensing, lighting, signage, digital displays, etc., especially in heavy-rain regions.

MetaMembranes for the Sensitivity Enhancement of Wearable Piezoelectric MetaSensors

“…Poisson's ratio defines the ratio between two characteristics of the transverse and longitudinal strain of a structure, and NPR behavior has been discovered in auxetic materials that expand (contract) in the transverse direction when stretched (compressed), instead of usual materials (Figure 1) [10][11][12][13][14]. Such an auxetic behavior is found in some hexagonal [15][16][17][18][19][20] and kirigami honeycombs [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Auxeticinspired designs for flexible membranes and substrates are attracting growing attention in developing the next generation of highly efficient piezoelectric sensors and harvesters.…”

Fabrication and Characterization of a Microscale Piezoelectric Vibrator Based on Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printed PZT Thick Film

“…Many structures to improve the efficiency of energy conversion for piezoelectric devices were proposed [23], which combined piezoelectric materials and an auxetic design, with a negative Poisson's ratio, for specific applications, such as the flexible membrane of a piezoelectric pulse sensor [24], cantilever beam energy harvester [25], and piezoelectric rain energy harvester [26], which demonstrated improved sensitivity output and the harvesting power. Further, Farhangdoust et al proposed kirigami and auxetic topologies to design a metamaterial-based substrate for piezoelectric energy harvesters, which showed its strong potential for high-sensitive MEMS sensing applications [27].…”