Dynamic analysis of a laminated composite plate coupled with a piezoelectric energy harvester and traversed by a moving vehicle

Abstract

The dynamic analysis is carried out of a laminated composite plate coupled with a piezoelectric energy harvester under the action of a moving vehicle. The finite element method along with Newmark’s method are applied to solve the discretized equations. Results are presented for two main cases: (i) free and forced vibrations of the laminated composite plate with no harvester and (ii) forced vibrations of the plate coupled with the energy harvester. Several parameters – such as the symmetric and anti-symmetric layups, length of the harvester, and piezoelectric material parameters – are considered to study their effects on the electrical output.

Keywords:

• Piezoelectric material
• energy harvesting
• moving vehicle
• laminated composite plates
• finite element method

Acknowledgements

The first and second authors acknowledge the funding support of Babol Noshirvani University of Technology through Grant program No. BNUT/974113053/98.