Topology optimization of piezoelectric devices using piezocomposite metamaterials

Abstract

Global interest in the production and development of piezoelectric transducers has increased exponentially in the past years, mainly due to large-scale use of embedded systems in sensor networks and Industry 4.0. These devices are increasingly being used in a variety of actuating and sensing applications, for example, for measurement, monitoring, diagnostics and control, and energy harvesting devices based on piezoelectric materials are being concurrently developed to power them. Therefore it is of interest to optimize their design, for example, allowing for greater tip displacement in piezoelectric actuators or greater power generation in energy harvesters, for a constant piezoelectric volume. Additionally, the composition of the piezoelectric material can also be optimized, generating multi-material composites. This can be achieved by developing mathematical models of piezoelectric devices, applying numerical discretization using the finite element method and then employing topology optimization techniques such as the Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Optimization (BESO) method, separately on the macro and micro-scales, as well as both concurrently (multi-scale), using substructuring algorithms or homogenization. In this context, the main goal of this research is to develop computational and numerical frameworks for the multi-scale analysis and topology optimization of piezoelectric metamaterials, for actuating, sensing and energy harvesting applications. (AU)