Breno Vincenzo de Almeida - School of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Computational Mechanics, University of Campinas, Cidade Universitria Zeferino Vaz - Barao Geraldo, ۱۳۰۸۳-۹۷۰, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Renato Pavanello - School of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Computational Mechanics, University of Campinas, Cidade Universitria Zeferino Vaz - Barao Geraldo, ۱۳۰۸۳-۹۷۰, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil

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 plain 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.

Piezoelectric, Harvester, Structural optimization