Summary
The energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations using a Micro Fiber Composite (MFC) patch and its optimal placement are a main purposes of this paper. The plant consists of a pseudo-conical cantilever shell with opposite curvatures. After applying initial stresses at boundary conditions, the shell acquires four stable states in terms of a static configuration. The unique geometry of the shell and antisymmetric lamina sequence are analysed by finite element model simulations and a strain energy criterion is estimated to identify a suitable location for the piezoelectric element. The designed system is experimentally subjected to various external events such as a single jump between stable configurations, in-well or cross-well resonant forcing. The study does not only investigate the first natural frequencies corresponding to each stable configuration of the composite structure but also higher vibration mode shapes in terms of enhancing the energy recovery factor taking into account sources of mechanical energy as well as MFC structural limits.
