Effects of geometric nonlinearity on the performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters applied to railway bridges

Abstract This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a vibrating energy harvester for railway bridge applications. The harvester is based on a piezoelectric material, PZT-5J, integrated into a coated aluminum beam substructure, which captures residual mechanical vibrations generated by trains passing over the bridge. The main novelty of this work is the study of the contribution of geometrically nonlinear vibrations to the voltage output. For this purpose, both experimental data and probabilistic results from a numerical tool integrating finite element and Monte Carlo methods are analyzed. Finally, it is observed that the energy production increases quadratically for the second nonlinear harmonic, which could be exploited in future harvester designs.