Due to developments in additive manufacturing, the production of piezoelectric materials with complex geometries is becoming viable and enabling the manufacturing of thicker harvesters. Therefore, in this study a piezoelectric harvesting device is modelled as a bimorph cantilever beam with a series...

Due to developments in additive manufacturing, the production of piezoelectric materials with complex geometries is becoming viable and enabling the manufacturing of thicker harvesters. Therefore, in this study a piezoelectric harvesting device is modelled as a bimorph cantilever beam with a series connection and an intermediate metallic substrate using the plane strain hypothesis. On the other hand, the thickness of the harvester's piezoelectric material is structurally optimized using a discrete topology optimization method. Moreover, different optimization parameters are varied to investigate the algorithm's convergence. The results of the optimization are presented and analyzed to examine the influence of the harvester's geometry and its different substrate materials on the harvester's energy conversion efficiency

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP

2013/08293-7; 2018/00075-4

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPES

Aberto