Vibration energy harvesting using auxetic piezoelectric cellular solids

Abstract This study investigates vibrational energy harvesting from a cantilever plate (with clamped-free boundary conditions) using an auxetic piezoelectric patch made of PZT-5H material. An analytical model was developed by treating the auxetic piezoelectric cell as an orthotropic structure and determining its electromechanical properties through homogenization and periodic boundary conditions. A numerical model was developed in ANSYS APDL and validated against the analytical results. The influence of the geometric parameters of the auxetic piezoelectric cell on energy harvesting performance and underlying mechanisms was examined. The findings indicate that energy harvesting performance is not directly dependent on the auxetic nature (i.e., negative Poisson’s ratio); rather, when bonded to a vibrating substrate, the auxetic cell exhibits stiffener-like behavior, as revealed by displacement and stress contours. For a specific combination of cell parameters, the auxetic piezoelectric patch produced a 59% higher output voltage (29.91 V versus 18.78 V) and a 36% lower output power (0.4511 mW versus 0.7063 mW) at the peak point compared to a bulk piezoelectric patch.