Power sensitivity of vibration energy harvester

Abstract

This paper deals with a power sensitivity improvement of an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester which generates electrical energy from ambient vibrations. The harvester provides an autonomous source of energy for wireless applications, with an expected power consumption of several mW, placed in environment excited by ambient mechanical vibrations. An appropriately tuned up design of the harvester with adequate sensitivity provides sufficient generating of electrical energy for some wireless applications and maximal harvested power depends on a harvester mass, frequency and level of the vibration and sensitivity of the energy harvester. The design of our harvester is based on electromagnetic converter and it contains a unique spring-less resonance mechanism where stiffness is provided by repelled magnetic forces. The greater sensitivity of the harvester provides more generated power or decrease of the harvester size and weight.

Approaches for a Fair Comparison and Benchmarking of Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvesters

“…Detailed studies of the mechanical damping have not been found in literature, and the impact and suitability of different designs cannot be compared. The comparison of the harvester designs suggests that the dominant damping phenomena are material damping, in special cases friction [41] and possibly laminar viscid damping.…”

Energy Harvesting from Mechanical Shocks Using a Sensitive Vibration Energy Harvester

“…The design is based on a unique spring-less resonance mechanism [1], which provides a suitable sensitivity of the used energy harvesting application. The design is shown in Figure 2, where the moving mass is designed as a pendulum with the magnetic circuit is on the pendulum end.…”

“…Measured characteristics for different vibration levels are presented in paper [1] and a review of harvested energy is shown in Table 1. The harvester was excited by the resonance frequency of vibrations.…”

Topology Design Optimization of Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester to Maximize Output Power

“…Multiple harvesters are arrayed to increase output voltages by summing up voltage from each harvester, or to increase bandwidth by differing from each harvester's natural frequency [6,7]. Recent studies reported advanced energyconversion mechanisms including the frequency up-conversion [3,6,8] and hybrid mechanisms [9,10]. In addition, new magnetic materials developed by micro-/nano-technologies are actively investigated [11].…”