Input-Independent Energy Harvesting in Bistable Lattices from Transition Waves

Myungwon Hwang,Andres F Arrieta

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22003-7

Abstract

We demonstrate the utilisation of transition waves for realising input-invariant, frequency-independent energy harvesting in 1D lattices of bistable elements. We propose a metamaterial-inspired design with an integrated electromechanical transduction mechanism to the unit cell, rendering the power conversion capability an intrinsic property of the lattice. Moreover, focusing of transmitted energy to desired locations is demonstrated numerically and experimentally by introducing engineered defects in the form of perturbation in mass or inter-element forcing. We achieve further localisation of energy and numerically observe a breather-like mode for the first time in this type of lattice, improving the harvesting performance by an order of magnitude. Our approach considers generic bistable unit cells and thus provides a universal mechanism to harvest energy and realise metamaterials effectively behaving as a capacitor and power delivery system.

Highlights

The utilisation of nonlinearity in vibration-based energy harvesting has been widely studied for improving the restricted bandwidth in which energy can be efficiently converted[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
We demonstrate that the invariance of transition waves to different boundary inputs in 1D lattices of bistable elements[33,34,35] enables the concentration, transmission, and harvesting of input energy independently from the excitations
The studied model is based on a 1D periodic lattice of bistable elements connected by inter-element magnetic forces[34]

Summary

Introduction

The utilisation of nonlinearity in vibration-based energy harvesting has been widely studied for improving the restricted bandwidth in which energy can be efficiently converted[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. The fundamental reliance on mechanical resonances and band gaps to convert energy from oscillatory sources restricts its applicability to finite frequency bands. This problem is exacerbated by the dimensional limit constraining resonant conversion at low structural frequencies in view of the inverse relationship between size and natural frequency; harvesting at low frequencies implies the use of impractically large devices.

Methods

Results

Conclusion