Metamaterial-inspired piezoelectric system with dual functionalities: energy harvesting and vibration suppression

Abstract

Elastic metamaterials can be used for vibration control where environmental vibrations exist. While, vibration energy harvesters can be designed to harness the environmental vibrations and convert them into useful electricity. These facts inspire us to develop a system with simultaneous vibration suppression and energy harvesting ability by combining them together. A piezoelectric metamaterial beam is presented in this paper to achieve dual functionalities. First, an analytical model of this system is developed and analyzed. Regarding the location of the metamaterial section on the beam, two configurations are proposed and studied. In order to achieve good dual functionalities, covering the beam with the metamaterial section from the free end should be given the priority. A parametric study is then performed to investigate the effect of the number of piezoelectric oscillators on the performance of the system. The result shows that by adding more oscillators, the system performance in terms of both vibration suppression and energy harvesting can be enhanced. Finally, a finite element model is developed with the consideration of implementing a realistic structure. The finite element results are in good agreement with the analytical results.