Nonlinear analysis of piezoelectric nanocomposite energy harvesting plates

This paper investigates the nonlinear analysis of energy harvesting from piezoelectric functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite plates under combined thermal and mechanical loadings. The excitation, which derives from harmonically varying mechanical in-plane loading, results in parametric excitation. The governing equations of the piezoelectric functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite plates are derived based on classical plate theory and von Kármán geometric nonlinearity. The material properties of the nanocomposite plate are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction. The single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are assumed to be aligned, straight and have a uniform layout. The linear buckling and vibration behavior of the nanocomposite plates is obtained in the first step. Then, Galerkin's method is employed to derive the nonlinear governing equations of the problem with cubic nonlinearities associated with mid-plane stretching. Periodic solutions are determined by using the Poincaré-Lindstedt perturbation scheme with movable simply supported boundary conditions. The effects of temperature change, the volume fraction and the distribution pattern of the SWCNTs on the parametric resonance, in particular the amplitude of vibration and the average harvested power of the smart functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite plates, are investigated through a detailed parametric study. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd.