Energy harvesting from vibrations of a beam under mass passage by arc-shaped auxetic cantilever beams

This study explores energy harvesting from beam vibrations induced by the passage of various masses, including concentrated, distributed, unbalanced, and consecutive masses. The energy harvester incorporates an arc-shaped auxetic substrate with a re-entrant, missing rib, and double-arrowhead structure. The system is simulated under different base excitations due to harmonic excitation and a bridge-simulator midpoint vibration. The first part involves theoretical analysis and finite element (FE) simulation of moving masses on a beam. In the second part, a theoretical examination and FE simulation of cantilever piezoelectric energy harvesters with arc-shaped auxetic substrates are conducted. Theoretical relations for the Euler-Bernoulli (EB) beam are derived using the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) method. The study reports a maximum output power of 1.29μW at an optimal resistance of 0.148MΩ under bridge excitation with the passage of a distributed mass. [Display omitted] •Enhanced energy harvesting from bridge vibrations by novel curved auxetic structures.•Validation of models through unique analytical methods and numerical FEAs.•Comparing curved auxetic configurations, the DAH structure maximizes power output.•Using several moving mass types enhances its applicability to real-world scenarios.