Controlled elastic postbuckling of bilaterally constrained non-prismatic columns: application to enhanced quasi-static energy harvesters
Axially compressed bilaterally constrained columns, which can attain multiple snap-through buckling events in their elastic postbuckling response, can be used as energy concentrators and mechanical triggers to transform external quasi-static displacement input to local high-rate motions and excite vibration-based piezoelectric transducers for energy harvesting devices.