Ryan Williamson, “Energy Harvesting with Terfenol-D”
Mentors: Rani Elhajjar and Chiu Law, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Piezoelectric Ceramics have been shown to generate electricity when mechanical stress is applied. Terfenol-D is a magnetostrictive alloy and should be able to generate power in the same way piezoelectric ceramics can. Using a shaker, mechanical stress can be applied at varying loads and high frequencies. The purpose of this project is to test power output when said mechanical stress is applied to a piece of Terfenol-D. Applying a mechanical stress causes a change in magnetic flux inside the material. A continuously changing applied stress leads to a continuously changing magnetic flux, which is how it is able to generate power. We ran simulations through COMSOL, a Multiphysics program to determine the viability of this as an energy source.

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