Application of single unit impact dampers to harvest energy and suppress vibrations

In this study, ongoing investigations to apply piezoelectric materials as an energy harvester are extended. In doing so, effectiveness of single unit impact dampers is increased using piezoelectric materials. For this reason, barriers of the impact damper are replaced with cantilever beams, which are equipped with the piezoelectric patches. For convenience, this kind of impact dampers is named as “piezo-impact dampers.” The piezo-impact damper is not only a vibration suppressor but also it is an energy harvester. An analytical approach is presented to formulate the voltage and power generation in the barriers of the piezo-impact dampers. Variation in output voltage is studied with changing the main parameters of the piezo-impact damper. Furthermore, damping inclination, which presents the ability of vibration suppressing in impact dampers, is calculated with varying the main parameters of the impact damper. Regarding calculated output voltage and damping inclination in the piezo-impact dampers, two “energy-based” and “vibratory-based” design methods are presented. Finally, using several user-oriented charts, the discussed design methods are combined to provide a powerful piezo-impact damper.