On the roles of strain gradient tensors in quasi‐3D nonlinear dynamics of microplate‐type piezoelectric systems of energy harvesting under triangular mechanical actuation

Abstract

The small‐scale‐dependent nonlinear dynamical attributes of microplate‐type laminated piezoelectric systems of harvesting energy subjected to a triangular mechanical actuation are explored in the current exploration. The core of harvesting systems is supposed to be made of nanocomposites reinforced by randomly oriented carbon nanotubes (CNTs) having various degrees of agglomeration coated by piezoelectric layers. In this regard, the microplate‐type systems of harvesting energy are modeled via a quasi‐3D plate theory combined with the modified strain gradient elasticity in the presence of various microsize‐dependent strain gradient tensors. Thereafter, the solution of the developed coupled electromechanical size‐dependent nonlinear problem is obtained numerically by utilizing the meshless collocation approach employing incorporation of the polynomial and radial basis functions to remove any feasible singularity for the associated moment matrices. It comes to the conclusion that by elevating the quantity of CNTs disclosed within the clusters, the significance of the microsize dependency in the achieved voltage enhances from 22.06% to 22.73% toward the simply supported bridge‐type context, and from 33.00% to 33.92% toward the clamped bridge‐type context.Highlights Development of a microstructural‐dependent quasi‐3D shear flexible energy harvester model. Incorporating the roles of various strain gradient tensors in the nonlinear dynamics of microharvesters. Size‐dependent time‐histories of achieved voltage from triangular mechanical‐loaded microharvesters. Influence of the CNT reinforcement clustering on the nonlinear dynamic performance.