Dynamical response and vibrational resonance of a tri-stable energy harvester interfaced with a standard rectifier circuit

Abstract

This paper investigates the dynamical response and vibrational resonance (VR) of a piecewise electromechanically coupled tri-stable energy harvester (TEH), which is driven by dual-frequency harmonic excitations. To achieve a stable DC output, the TEH is interfaced with a standard rectifier circuit. Using the harmonic balance method combined with the separation of fast and slow variables, a steady-state response together with the analytical expressions of displacement and harvested power is derived. The multi-solution feature in the amplitude–frequency response is observed and can improve the harvesting performance of the TEH under a low-frequency environment. There is an optimal time constant ratio and electromechanical coupled coefficient to maximize the harvested DC power. Meanwhile, the VR phenomenon of the TEH is explored through the response amplitude of the low-frequency input signal, which implies that an appropriate combination can induce the occurrence of VR and improve the rectified voltage. Similarly, the nonlinear stiffness coefficients can be adjusted by changing the magnet distance to induce the appearance of VR. The theoretical solutions are well supported by numerical simulation and experimental verification. Specifically, the theoretical analysis and experimental evidence illustrate that the harvested power under the VR effect is much higher than that without VR.

A Non-Linear Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Setup for the Continuous Power Supply of a Wind Turbine Monitoring System

“…To that end, numerous multi-stable devices have been designed for harvesting energy from vibrations in several application sectors, such as infrastructure [4], [5], medical, wearables to mention a few, while extensive literature reviews provide a detailed overview of the reported research and development in the field [3], [6]. The functional principle of a large part of these nonlinear devices is based on electromagnetic forces acting on a cantilever beam carrying piezoelectric transducers [7] connected to harvesting circuits [8]. Another popular relevant physical concept is the exploitation of the bistable response of a post-buckled piezoelectric beam subjected to base excitation [9].…”