The dynamic regimes and the energy harvesting of the energy harvester based on the bistable piezoelectric composite laminate

Abstract

The dynamic regimes and the energy harvesting of the bistable energy harvester based on the bistable piezoelectric composite laminate are elaborated here. To identify the all-around dynamic regimes and assess the bistable energy harvesting performance, the forward frequency sweep, the reverse frequency sweep and the resistance sweep are conducted. The peak-to-peak frequency–amplitude response curves on the displacement and the voltage output are graphically presented. The single-well vibration, the limit cycle oscillations, the intermittency between the limit cycle oscillations and the chaotic snapthrough, the intermittency between the multiple periods snapthrough and the chaotic snapthrough, the multiple periods snapthrough and the chaotic snapthrough are elaborated by the Time history diagram, the Phase diagram and the Poincare map. The dynamic regimes are graphically presented delivering the stability zone for the dynamic responses and the optimal region for the energy harvesting. The RMS power output and the Max voltage output are checked to be the value judgements. Due to the softening nonlinear effect and the hysteresis, the conspicuous biases between the forward and reverse frequency sweeps are found to exist illustrating that the limit cycle oscillations expand the bandwidth of the double-well regimes during the reverse frequency sweep. From the perspective of the energy harvesting capacity, the limit cycle oscillations are demonstrated to be optimal, the double-well responses generally outperform the single-well responses concerning the off-resonance and the single-well responses concerning the primary resonance around the reduced modal frequency may outperform the double-well responses except the limit cycle oscillations. The load resistance is crucial to the power generation performance and needs optimizing with the change of the external excitation. The load resistance, the external excitation amplitude and frequency are interrelated and can be optimized simultaneously for the maximum power generation efficiency.