Research on dual-functional characteristics of piezoelectric metamaterial beams for vibration reduction and power generation

A piezoelectric metamaterial beam composed of metamaterials and piezoelectric energy harvesting is proposed to realize the dual-functional characteristics of vibration reduction and power generation simultaneously. Based on the theoretical derivation of the electrical domain and the structural domain, the transfer matrix of the piezoelectric metamaterial beam is constructed using the charge accurate integration method and the transfer matrix method. The energy band structure of the infinite periodical model and the vibration transmission of the finite periodical model are analyzed numerically to illustrate the low frequency bandgaps of the piezoelectric metamaterial beam. An external load circuit for energy harvesting is introduced, and its influence on the vibration characteristics of the original system is analyzed. On this basis, Kirchhoff’s law is used to derive accurate analytical solutions for the output voltage and output power of each piezoelectric oscillator, and the relationship between the local resonance bandgap and band-edge effect and the power generation performance of the piezoelectric metamaterial beam is investigated in detail. Finally, the theoretical analysis results are verified by finite element simulation analysis. It is shown that the introduction of an external load circuit for energy harvesting results in the vanishing of the dense resonant frequency range at the lower band edge of the local resonance bandgap and the modal peaks near the upper and lower band edges are effectively suppressed, consequently expanding the range of the bandgap. In addition, an excellent power generation performance is observed in the local resonant bandgap and the passband of the upper and lower band edges.