Dynamics of Transition Regime in Bi-stable Vibration Energy Harvesters

Alwathiqbellah Ibrahim, Shahrzad Towfighian*, Mohammad I. Younis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vibration energy harvesting can be an effective method for scavenging wasted mechanical energy for use by wireless sensors that have limited battery life. Two major goals in designing energy harvesters are enhancing the power scavenged at low frequency and improving efficiency by increasing the frequency bandwidth. To achieve these goals, we derived a magneto-elastic beam operated at the transition between mono- and bi-stable regions. By improving the mathematical model of the interaction of magnetic force and beam dynamics, we obtained a precise prediction of natural frequencies as the distance of magnets varies. Using the shooting technique for the improved model, we present a fundamental understanding of interesting combined softening and hardening responses that happen at the transition between the two regimes. The transition regime is proposed as the optimal region for energy conversion in terms of frequency bandwidth and output voltage. Using this technique, low frequency vibration energy harvesting at around 17 Hz was possible. The theoretical results were in good agreement with the experimental results. The target application is to power wildlife bio-logging devices from bird flights that have consistent high power density around 16 Hz [1].
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalJournal of Vibration and Acoustics
Volume139
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 20 2017

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