Design and Performance Analysis of a Multistable Piezoelectric Energy Harvester using Von Mises Truss

The paper investigates the use of a multistable shallow von Mises truss as a piezoelectric energy harvester. The authors obtain the exact Lagrangian and apply Hamilton's principle to derive a nonlinear equation of motion that takes into account the piezoelectric coupling. The shallow von Mises truss exhibits highly nonlinear snap-through behavior, resulting in significant cross-well motions. This behavior improves the efficiency of the energy harvester by converting mechanical pressure into electricity more effectively. A parametric analysis demonstrates that increasing the number of units and the occurrence of snap-through can enhance the output voltage and power of the harvester.