Seyed Ehsan Habibi

Based on the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and the generalized Hamilton’s principle, this paper presents piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) from vibrations of a functionally graded (FG) beam induced by multimoving forces and multimoving masses. Various moving loads are analyzed by considering various parameters. The finite element method is used to analyze the electromechanical behavior of a piezoelectric harvester in a unimorph configuration. For the transient analysis, the Newmark’s explicit integration technique is adopted. It is assumed that material properties of the beam and piezoelectric patch vary continuously in the thickness direction according to the power-law form. The effects of different material distributions, velocities of the moving loads, and time lags between each moving load on the produced power are discussed. The present work shows that a remarkable electrical power can be generated from the vibrations of an FG beam subjected to moving loads and masses