A novel 3D skeletal frame topology for energy harvesting systems

A novel multimodal and multidirectional energy harvester by asymmetric 3D skeletal frame structures

“…In each structure, a thinner clamped mass is used as a base for the members. The corresponding symmetric frame and 1D beam from [30] are depicted in Figs. 1g-h and 2, respectively.…”

“…Toyabur et al [29] suggested a multimodal piezoelectric-electromagnetic EH with multiple close resonant modes of vibration in a certain frequency range. Most recently, a novel 3D symmetric skeletal frame topology for energy harvesters was proposed by the authors [30]. The structure was shown to be able to simultaneously overcome the above-mentioned challenges of uni-directionality and low-strain areas for resonance-based energy harvesting.…”

“…As was mentioned in the previous paragraph, the literature shows that utilizing 2D structures instead of 1D beams could result in important benefits in designing piezoelectric EHs. All of the simultaneous advantages of the skeletal frame topology [30] is due to the 3D nature (instead of either 1D or 2D) of the structure inspired from constructional space frame structures of structural engineering. Therefore, it was shown that in general, a 3D topology with an appropriate design can even result in more significant benefits than both 1D and 2D ones.…”

“…In this article, 3D asymmetric skeletal frame topologies are presented for multimodal and multidirectional energy harvesting systems. One point about the skeletal frame topology presented in [30] is related to its symmetry which could result in repeated and clustered local natural frequencies on members (legs) and thus may not effectively solve the lack of multi-modality in higher modes. It is shown in the present study that by creating slight changes in the design of the skeletal frame harvester, this problem can also be overcome, while maintaining all of the advantages of a typical skeletal frame structure.…”

“…The results of novel topologies related to multidirectional along with dynamic strains are obtained using ABAQUS and compared to both the corresponding 3D symmetric frame and 1D beam. The ABAQUS model was validated against theoretical and experimental results in [30]. Furthermore, it is shown that the effective areas of high strain of a symmetric or 3D asymmetric frame harvester is much more than the corresponding 1D beam for attaching piezoelectric materials as another advantage of the novel topology.…”