A wideband vibration-based energy harvester

Abstract

We present a new architecture for wideband vibration-based micro-power generators (MPGs). It replaces a linear oscillator with a piecewise-linear oscillator as the energy harvesting element of the MPG. A prototype of an electromagnetic MPG designed accordingly is analyzed analytically, numerically and experimentally. We find that the new architecture increases the bandwidth of the MPG during a frequency up-sweep, while maintaining the same bandwidth in a down-sweep. Closed-form expressions for the response of the new MPG as well as the up-sweep bandwidth are presented and validated experimentally. Simulations show that under random-frequency excitations, the new MPG collects more energy than the traditional MPG.

Microscale Energy Harvesters with Nonlinearities Due to Internal Impacts

“…Even though this behavior can be exploited to extend device bandwidth, operating a conventional harvester in this regime has the considerable disadvantage that the output power saturates at high excitation levels and therefore the effectiveness of the device decreases. This saturation is quite generic and has been reported for a variety of devices [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…These effects have been observed in several devices, e.g. in a mesoscale electromagnetic harvester by [16], a mesoscale piezoelectric harvester [18][19] and a microscale electrostatic harvester [17]. Some examples of measured and simulated characteristics of a microscale electrostatic energy harvester from [30] are shown in Figure 2 which displays "clipping" of the response and extended up-sweep bandwidth, and Figure 3 which displays saturation.…”

A piezomagnetoelastic structure for broadband vibration energy harvesting

“…Thus researchers have recently focused on the concept of broadband energy harvesting to solve this issue with different approaches. 5,6 This letter introduces a broadband piezoelectric power generator that exhibits large-amplitude periodic oscillations over a frequency range. Although the magnetoelastic structure is discussed here for piezoelectric energy harvesting, it can easily be extended to electromagnetic, electrostatic, and magnetostrictive energy harvesting techniques as well as to their hybrid combinations with similar devices.…”

Modeling and Simulation of a Nonlinear Energy Harvester under Broadband Vibrations

“…Therefore, no wonder a large portion of the vibration energy harvesting research is currently developed towards designing harvesters capable of harvesting energy from broadband vibrations [4]. One proposed solution is introducing nonlinearities into the VEHs [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Such VEHs have nonlinear dynamic properties that shall influence the coupling between the base vibration and the harvester and thus broaden its working bandwidth.…”