Topology optimization of periodic piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting devices

Abstract

This project has the main goal of developing an algorithm that finds the optimal topology of a periodic composite piezoelectric energy harvesting device. To achieve this goal, the initial steps are to review the piezoelectric constitutive equations, apply the Finite Element discretization method generating a two dimensional model under plain strain hypothesis and evaluate the possibility of extending the model to consider plate or three dimensional elements. The next step is to write the topology optimization problem aiming to maximize the harvesters' mechanical to electric conversion ratio. Next, the bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method is implemented to find the optimized structure, or another solver option such as integer linear programming. The optimization procedure will be applied to the harvester considering static and dynamic excitations and, lastly, periodicity hypothesis will be applied in order to model a piezocomposite periodic device. The grant applicant has already experience working with the optimization of piezoelectric energy harvesters on non periodic materials having used evolutionary methods in his Scientific Initiation project, thus the goal of this proposal could be considered a natural follow up for a master's thesis. The grant applicant is already enrolled for a Master of Science degree at the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Campinas on the Department of Computational Mechanics and has all the necessary materials required for this project. Furthermore, the grant applicant's research group contributes to Center for Computational Engineering and Sciences (CCES). (AU)