Topology optimization of piezoelectric materials to improve energy harvesting and actuator effects

The advances in miniaturization techniques over the last decade have made the widespread of electronic devices which are made based on piezoelectric effect to convert ambient energy (typically vibration) to electric energy as an energy harvester or convert electrical energy to mechanical energy as an actuator. In this regard, topology optimization (TO) is applied to improve piezoelectric devices' energy harvesting and actuating effect. Three TO problems are defined i.e, total displacement minimization of the structure, observation point deflection minimization, and maximizing the electromechanical conversion factor. The objective functions for both the energy harvesting device and actuator are formulated in new formulations in terms of proper physical response functions integrated over the design domain. Such new physical response functions contain electrical and mechanical energies of piezoelectric multilayers comprised of a substrate and a PZT layer. Applying numerical examples shows that it is possible to reach suitable actuation and harvesting devices by deriving the optimal configurations of PZT layers as design domains.

کلیدواژه ها:

PZT ، topology optimization ، moving iso-surface threshold ، actuator energy harvesting