opology optimization of periodic piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting devices

Author(s)

Breno Vincenzo de Almeida

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica
• Defense date: 2019-12-03

Examining board members

Renato Pavanello; José Roberto de França Arruda; Emilio Carlos Nelli Silva

• Advisor: Renato Pavanello

Abstract

With the development of intelligent manufacturing in industry 4.0 and an increase in transducer usage, it is advantageous to develop devices capable of optimizing the electric efficiency of electromechanical systems, thus decreasing or even avoiding the usage of batteries, which do not only incur in additional costs, but are also detrimental to the environment. Piezoelectric energy harvesters are devices capable of transforming mechanical energy dissipated in the form of vibration into useful electric energy. To design these devices, knowledge on solid mechanics, vibrations, electromechanical systems and piezoelectric materials is required, thus being relatively complex, and in order to develop them precise and representative models are needed. Therefore, in this work a bimorph piezoelectric energy harvesting device with series connection between the electrodes and in a closed circuit was modeled in plane strain hypothesis and its topology was optimized in order to maximize its electromechanical coupling coefficient. Moreover, with advances on additive manufacturing techniques, the production of complex piezoelectric structures is becoming more feasible, enabling the development of piezoelectric metamaterials. Thus, a modification of the Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Optimization method (BESO) was proposed, implemented and tested, coupling the classical BESO objective function maximization method with a discrete electrode reallocation algorithm. This method was applied for energy harvesters composed of periodic piezoelectric metamaterials and for a standard bimorph configuration. Numerical results and figures of the optimized topologies, obtained considering different resistor values, are presented and analyzed (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/00075-4 - Topology optimization of periodic piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting devices
• Grantee: Breno Vincenzo de Almeida
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master