Destructive shockwaves from an impact can be trapped in one spot and harvested as usable electricity.
April 23, 2026
Original Paper
Transition Waves for Energy Trapping and Harvesting
SSRN · 6617120
The Takeaway
Impacts and vibrations are usually forces that engineers try to dampen or get rid of before they cause damage. This new metamaterial uses transition waves to catch these impulses and lock them into a specific location. Once the energy is trapped, it can be slowly bled off or converted directly into electrical power. This turns a potentially catastrophic shock into a battery-charging event. The material acts as both a protective shield and an energy harvester at the same time. This technology could be used to power sensors on bridges or capture energy from the footsteps of people in a crowded station.
From the abstract
Multistability and associated nonlinear phenomena, such as hysteresis and phase transitions, have been utilized to expand the functionality of metamaterials. This study leverages transition waves to control energy transport through multistable metamaterials subjected to impulsive loading, thereby achieving a multifunctional system capable of shock absorption as well as energy harvesting. Numerical simulations and experiments show that carefully designed defects can lock energy in transition wave