Design and dynamics of a cantilevered bistable buckled piezoelectric beam for vibrational energy harvesting

Pan, Diankun, Liang, Yong, Zhang, Zhimin and Wu, Zhangming ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7100-3282 2025. Design and dynamics of a cantilevered bistable buckled piezoelectric beam for vibrational energy harvesting. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 224 , 112013. 10.1016/j.ymssp.2024.112013 Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

In this paper, a novel family of low-cost, magnet-free bistable piezoelectric energy harvesters with a simple structure is designed, fabricated, and tested to evaluate their nonlinear dynamics and performance for harvesting energy from broadband vibrations. A laser-machined bistable structure, consisting of a buckled beam and two supporting beams, is employed as the host structure for constructing this energy harvester with piezoelectric transducers. The integration of buckled beams and constraints provided by supporting beams allows for the configuration of this bi-stable buckled piezoelectric beam under cantilevered boundary conditions without requiring external operation. The proposed harvester’s static mechanical properties and dynamic responses are predicted using a finite element model, while its basic dynamics are understood through a simple analytical model. The frequency-sweep results demonstrate that the proposed harvester exhibits a broadband characteristic compared to the linear piezoelectric beam with a similar configuration, and various vibration modes and their corresponding performance of energy harvesting are analyzed and characterized. The potential of this proposed harvester is explored by adjusting the geometry parameters, such as the width of the supporting beam and thickness, to alter its dynamics and energy harvesting performance. Finally, a nonlinear energy harvesting array consisting of four proposed harvesters with adjacent broadbands is fabricated to enhance overall performance, achieving a broadband width of 13.7 Hz at an acceleration of 0.75 g. The proposed method introduces a novel design philosophy for nonlinear vibrational energy harvesters.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0888-3270
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 November 2024
Date of Acceptance:	2 October 2024
Last Modified:	12 Nov 2024 13:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/173269

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