SELF-SENSING AND SELF-POWERING MULTIFUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES

Abstract

Developing lightweight multifunctional structures with sensing, energy harvesting and mechanical tunability capabilities has been the holy grail for scientists. This study presents our vision toward the next stage of the technological revolution in multifunctional structures science where a so-called Engineered Self-aware Structure (ES2) can sense, empower and program itself using its constituent components. We discuss the creation of such smart structures through the fusion of advanced metamaterial and energy harvesting technologies. The ES2 concept is validated via designing a composite beam prototype. The results imply that the fabricated multifunctional beam can measure the amplitude of the applied load and harvest the energy from the mechanical excitations. We demonstrate the broad application of the proposed concept in aerospace, biomedical, and civil engineering areas for designing multiscale self-sensing and self-powering devices.