Manipulating the stiffness of post-buckled beams using topology optimization

Vibration energy harvesters can help in different areas. These vary from supplying power to medical implants or wireless sensors that can aid in predicting natural disasters. However, the problem is that they are not able to generate power across a large bandwidth of frequencies. Bistable energy harvesters can solve this problem when these are...

Manipulating post-buckled compliant mechanisms: Buckling mode interaction as a novel method of stiffness compensation

Bistable vibration energy harvesters are an interesting alternative to their linear counterparts. They allow for large amplitude oscillations between their stable equilibria, from which much energy can be generated. However, the stable equilibria are separated by a potential energy barrier that has to be overcome. Therefore, we cannot guarantee...