Design of an Energy Harvesting Device Based on Negative-Poissons-Ratio Metamaterials

In recent years, as the demand for low-power, long-lifetime energy sources has continued to rise in fields such as wireless sensors and wearable devices, piezoelectric energy-harvesting technology has matured steadily. However, this technology faces prominent limitations: on the one hand, its operating bandwidth is relatively narrow, making it difficult to efficiently capture high-frequency vibration energy; on the other hand, its output power is comparatively low, falling short of high-power requirements in some scenarios. This paper designs a nonlinear piezoelectric energy-harvesting device that employs a negative Poissons ratio structure as the loading structure. The elastic cable has fixed-end (clamped) boundary constraints at both ends. By means of an innovative unit-cell architecture, the device achieves efficient conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy. Using ANSYS static-structural simulations together with MATLAB numerical simulations, we verify advantages of the proposed structure in stress distribution, deformation characteristics, and energy output. Simulation results show that, under a base acceleration of 0.1 g, the device doubles the power output (a 100% increase) relative to conventional structures and widens the operating bandwidth by 50%, while also exhibiting good stability and design flexibility. This work offers a new design concept for broadband, high-efficiency vibration energy harvesting.