A parametric study on the optimization of a metamaterial-based energy harvester

Abstract

Highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs) are compact nondispersive waves that propagate in nonlinear medium such as straight chains of spherical particles. In the last two decades, these waves have found many applications in physics and engineering including lensing and nondestructive testing. In the study presented in this paper, we exploit the propagation of HNSWs along a metamaterial formed by granular chains to harvest energy from an oscillating structure. Specifically, an oscillator taps the metamaterial and creates a train of solitary waves along each chain. At the interface between the chains and a solid material, part of the acoustic energy refracts into the solid where it coalesces at a point. Here, a wafer-type transducer converts the focalized stress wave into electric potential. In the research presented in this study, we optimize some of the harvester’s parameters to maximize the electrical power output. The results demonstrate that the proper selection of parameters such as beads’ material and size, speed of the oscillator at the instant of the impact, and modulus of the solid increases, by several orders of magnitude, the amount of power that can be harvested.

Experimental parametric analysis of an energy harvester based on highly nonlinear solitary waves

“…The study described in this article presents our latest advancements and complete the numerical work reported in Li et al (2015), by validating most of that numerical work. Five experiments were conducted.…”

“…Recently, we proposed the design of a new kind of harvester (Li et al, 2015; Li and Rizzo, 2015a, 2015b) that conveys the distributed energy associated with the vibration of a continuous system (a bridge, a pavement, etc.) into a focal point where an electromechanical system can convert the mechanical stress into electricity.…”

“…The power output of this new harvester was compared to a conventional cantilever beam (Li and Rizzo, 2015a) and to a system where the grains were replaced by rods (Li and Rizzo, 2015b). Next, we conducted a numerical study in which the materials of the grains and of the solid, as well as the boundary conditions of the piezoelectric element were varied in order to evaluate the effect of the harvester design on its harvesting performance (Li et al, 2015). In these numerical investigations a discrete particle model (DPM) was used to predict the propagation of the solitary wave along the metamaterial, and a finite element analysis (FEA) was implemented to portray the linear wave propagation in the solid and to quantify the output.…”

“…The results demonstrated that the power output extracted from the optimal design is several orders of magnitude higher than the worst design. Thus, the study in Li et al (2015) proved that the design of the harvester can be improved by selecting the appropriate material for each component.…”

Piezoelectric Impact Energy Harvester Based on the Composite Spherical Particle Chain for Self-Powered Sensors

“…By replacing several spherical particles of the chain with energy-harvesting particles, a PEH of collision or impact energy can be developed. Li et al [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] constructed an impact PEH with homogeneous particle chains. In their design, the solitary waves propagated along the chains emitted into an elastic base material, and a self-focusing of solitary waves in the base material was realized through optimizing the chains.…”