The idea to use environmental energy to power electronic portable devices is becoming very popular in recent years. In fact, the possibility of not relying only on batteries can provide devices longer operating periods in a fully sustainable way. Vibrational kinetic energy is a reliable and widespread environmental energy, that makes it a suitable energy source to exploit. In this paper, we study the electrical response of a bistable system, by using a double-well Duffing oscillator, connected to a circuit through piezoceramic elements and driven by both a low (LF) and a high frequency (HF) forcing, where the HF forcing is the environmental vibration, while the LF is controlled by us. The response amplitude at low-frequency increases, reaches a maximum and then decreases for a certain range of HF forcing. This phenomenon is called vibrational resonance. Finally, we demonstrate that by enhancing the oscillations we can harvest more electric energy. It is important to take into account that by doing so with a forcing induced by us, the amplification effect is highly controllable and easily reproducible.

In this paper, we study the vibrational resonance (VR) phenomenon as a useful mechanism for energy harvesting purposes. A system, driven by a low frequency and a high frequency forcing, can give birth to the vibrational resonance phenomenon, when the two forcing amplitudes resonate and a maximum in amplitude is reached. We apply this idea to a bistable oscillator that can convert environmental kinetic energy into electrical energy, that is, an energy harvester. Normally, the VR phenomenon is studied in terms of the forcing amplitudes or of the frequencies, that are not always easy to adjust and change. Here, we study the VR generated by tuning another parameter that is possible to manipulate when the forcing values depend on the environmental conditions. We have investigated the dependence of the maximum response due to the VR for small and large variations in the forcing amplitudes and frequencies. Besides, we have plotted color coded figures in the space of the two forcing amplitudes, in which it is possible to appreciate different patterns in the electrical power generated by the system. These patterns provide useful information on the forcing amplitudes in order to produce the optimal electrical power.

The phenomenon of delay-induced resonance implies that in a nonlinear system a time-delay term may be used as an effective enhancer of the oscillations caused by an external forcing maintaining the same frequency. This is possible for the parameters for which the time-delay induces sustained oscillations. Here, we study this type of resonance in the overdamped and underdamped time-delayed Duffing oscillators, and we explore some new features. One of them is the conjugate phenomenon: the oscillations caused by the time-delay may be enhanced by means of the forcing without modifying their frequency. The resonance takes place when the frequency of the oscillations induced by the time-delay matches the ones caused by the forcing and vice versa. This is an interesting result as the nature of both perturbations is different. Even for the parameters for which the time-delay does not induce sustained oscillations, we show that a resonance may appear following a different mechanism.

No abstract

Combined effects of the damping and forcing in the underdamped time-delayed Duffing oscillator are considered in this paper. We analyse the generation of a certain damping-induced unpredictability due to the gradual suppression of interwell oscillations. We find the minimal amount of the forcing amplitude and the right forcing frequency to revert the effect of the dissipation, so that the interwell oscillations can be restored, for different time delay values. This is achieved by using the delay-induced resonance, in which the time delay replaces one of the two periodic forcings present in the vibrational resonance. A discussion in terms of the time delay of the critical values of the forcing for which the delay-induced resonance can tame the dissipation effect is finally carried out. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vibrational and stochastic resonance in driven nonlinear systems (part 1)’.