Piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) is a widely used technique that can convert mechanical vibrations into electricity promising the vision of fully self-powered IoT sensing for the future smart homes, industries and cities. However, at present, the generated power density from PEH is still insufficient to compete with batteries. One of the most promising research directions in enhancing PEH power generation is the development of meta-materials, i.e., materials with internal architecture designed to exhibit novel functionalities, not achievable with natural materials. Specifically, meta-materials can be designed to enable focusing and guiding the source vibrations to select locations and frequencies for maximal energy harvesting. Research in meta-material-based PEH is still in nascent stage with early research confined to ad-hoc experiments and simple mathematical models.
School
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Area
Civil Engineering
- Research Environment
- Expected Outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference Material/Links
Our research team is at the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and includes people with expertise in numerical modelling, optimisation, sensing and structural dynamics.
Upon successful completing of this project, it is expected to establish and validate the numerical model of a beam with repetitive resonators and estimate the amount of harvested energy.
