In memory of Professor Ali H. Nayfeh

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this paper, we propose and numerically study a nonlinear, asymmetric, passive metamaterial that achieves giant non-reciprocity with (i) broadband frequency operation and...     

On the efficacy of charging a battery using a chaotic energy harvester

Nonlinear Dynamics - Introduction of stiffness nonlinearities to broaden the frequency bandwidth of vibratory energy harvesters has the adverse influence of complicating the response behavior of...     

Exploiting the subharmonic parametric resonances of a buckled beam for vibratory energy harvesting

The potential of harvesting vibratory energy via a bistable beam subjected to subharmonic parametric excitations is investigated. The vibrating structure is a buckled beam with two stable equilibria separated by a potential barrier. The beam is subjected to a superposition of a static axial load beyond its buckling load and a harmonic axial excitation whose frequency is around twice the frequency of the buckled beam’s first vibration mode. A macro-fiber composite patch is attached to one side of the beam to convert the strain energy resulting from the beam’s oscillation into electricity. The study considers two regimes of excitations: an amplitude sweep and a frequency sweep. In the first regime, the amplitude of excitation is quasi-statically varied while the excitation frequency is tuned at twice the natural frequency of the first vibration mode. In the second regime, the excitation frequency is swept forward and backward around the subharmonic resonant frequency while the amplitude of excitation is kept constant. A theoretical model which governs the electromechanical coupling of the transverse vibrations of the beam and the output voltage is used to monitor the response as the excitation parameters are changed. An experimental setup is also built and a series of tests is performed to validate the theoretical findings. It is shown that, depending on the amplitude and frequency of excitation, the harvester can perform small-amplitude periodic intra-well motion, intra- and inter-well chaotic motions, as well as periodic inter-well motions. Experimental results also show that, as compared to the classical linear resonance, utilizing the sub-harmonic resonance of a bistable energy harvesters can result in a broadband frequency response.     

Influence of potential function asymmetries on the performance of nonlinear energy harvesters under white noise

To improve the broadband transduction capabilities of vibratory energy harvesters (VEHs) under random and non-stationary excitations, many researchers have resorted to purposefully introducing nonlinearities into the restoring force of the harvester. While performing this task, it is often very challenging to maintain a perfectly symmetric restoring force which yields a VEH with an asymmetric potential energy function. This paper investigates the influence of potential function asymmetries on the performance of nonlinear VEHs under white noise inputs. To that end, a quadratic nonlinearity is introduced into the restoring force and its influence on the mean output power of the harvester for mono- and bi-stable quartic potentials is investigated. It is shown that, for VEHs with a mono-stable quartic potential function, the mean output power increases with the degree of potential function asymmetry. On the other hand, for energy harvesters with a bi-stable quartic potential function, asymmetries in the restoring force appear to worsen performance especially for low to moderate noise intensities. When the noise intensity becomes sufficiently large, the influence of the potential function?s asymmetry on the mean power diminishes. Results also reveal that a VEH with a symmetric bi-stable quartic potential function produces higher mean power levels than the one with the most asymmetric mono-stable potential. As such, it is concluded that a VEH with a symmetric bi-stable potential is most desirable to improve performance under white noise.     

Response of duffing-type harvesters to band-limited noise

This paper aims to experimentally investigate the influence of stiffness-type nonlinearities on the transduction of vibratory energy harvesters (VEHs) under band-limited noise. For the purpose of the study, an energy harvester consisting of a clamped–clamped piezoelectric beam bi-morph is considered. The shape of the harvester's potential function is altered by applying a static compressive axial load at one end of the beam. The axial load permits the harvester to operate with different potential energy characteristics, namely, the mono-stable (pre-buckling) and bi-stable (post-buckling) configurations. The performance of the harvester in both the configurations is investigated and compared by tuning the harvester's oscillation frequencies around the static equilibria such that they have equal values in both scenarios. The harvester is then subjected to random base excitations of different levels, bandwidths, and center frequencies. The variance of the output voltage is measured across an arbitrary, purely resistive load and used for the purpose of performance comparison. Critical conclusions pertinent to the influence of the nonlinearity and relative performance in both configurations are presented and discussed.     

Response behavior of bi-stable point wave energy absorbers under harmonic wave excitations

Nonlinear Dynamics - To expand the narrow response bandwidth of linear point wave energy absorbers (PWAs), a few research studies have recently proposed incorporating a bi-stable restoring force in...     

Two-to-one internal resonance in microscanners

To realize large scanning angles, torsional microscanners are normally excited at their natural frequencies. Usually, a bias DC voltage is also applied to scan around a desired nonzero tilt angle. As a result, a deep understanding of the mirror’s response to a DC-shifted primary resonance excitation is imperative. Along these lines, we use the method of multiple scales to obtain a second-order nonlinear approximate analytical solution of the mirror steady-state response. We show that the response of the mirror exhibits a softening-type behavior that increases as the magnitude of the DC component increases. For a given mirror, we can also identify a DC voltage range wherein the mirror exhibits a two-to-one internal resonance between the first two modes; that is, ω ₂≈2ω ₁. To analyze the mirror behavior within that range, we first treat the case where the excitation frequency is near the first-mode frequency; that is, Ω≈ω ₁. Then we treat the case where the excitation frequency is near the second-mode frequency; that is, Ω≈ω ₂. We analyze the stability of the response and compare the analytical results to numerical solutions obtained via long-time integration of the equations of motion. We show that, due to the internal resonance, the mirror exhibits complex dynamic behavior characterized by aperiodic responses to primary resonance excitations. This behavior results in undesirable oscillations that are detrimental to the mirror performance, namely bringing the target point in and out of focus and resulting in distorted images.

     

Non-linear vibrations of parametrically excited cantilever beams subjected to non-linear delayed-feedback control

Non-linear feedback control provides an effective methodology for vibration mitigation in non-linear dynamic systems. However, within digital circuits, actuation mechanisms, filters, and controller processing time, intrinsic time-delays unavoidably bring an unacceptable and possibly detrimental delay period between the controller input and real-time system actuation. If not well-studied, these inherent and compounding delays may inadvertently channel energy into or out of a system at incorrect time intervals, producing instabilities and rendering controllers’ performance ineffective. In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of the effect of time delays on the non-linear control of parametrically excited cantilever beams. More specifically, we examine three non-linear cubic delayed-feedback control methodologies: position, velocity, and acceleration delayed feedback. Utilizing the method of multiple scales, we derive the modulation equations that govern the non-linear dynamics of the beam. These equations are then utilized to investigate the effect of time delays on the stability, amplitude, and frequency–response behavior. We show that, when manifested in the feedback, even the minute amount of delays can completely alter the behavior and stability of the parametrically excited beam, leading to unexpected behavior and responses that could puzzle researchers if not well-understood and documented.     

On primary resonances of weakly nonlinear delay systems with cubic nonlinearities

We implement the method of multiple scales to investigate primary resonances of a weakly nonlinear second-order delay system with cubic nonlinearities. In contrast to previous studies where the implementation is confined to the assumption of linear delay terms with small coefficients (Hu et al. in Nonlinear Dyn. 15:311, 1998; Ji and Leung in Nonlinear Dyn. 253:985, 2002), in this effort, we propose a modified approach which alleviates that assumption and permits treating a problem with arbitrarily large gains. The modified approach lumps the delay state into unknown linear damping and stiffness terms that are functions of the gain and delay. These unknown functions are determined by enforcing the linear part of the steady-state solution acquired via the method of multiple scales to match that obtained directly by solving the forced linear problem. We examine the validity of the modified procedure by comparing its results to solutions obtained via a harmonic balance approach. Several examples are discussed demonstrating the ability of the proposed methodology to predict the amplitude, softening-hardening characteristics, and stability of the resulting steady-state responses. Analytical results also reveal that the system can exhibit responses with different nonlinear characteristics near its multiple delay frequencies.     

On utilizing delayed feedback for active-multimode vibration control of cantilever beams

We present a single-input single-output multimode delayed-feedback control methodology to mitigate the free vibrations of a flexible cantilever beam. For the purpose of controller design and stability analysis, we consider a reduced-order model consisting of the first n vibration modes. The temporal variation of these modes is represented by a set of nonlinearly coupled ordinary-differential equations that capture the evolving dynamics of the beam. Considering a linearized version of these equations, we derive a set of analytical conditions that are solved numerically to assess the stability of the closed-loop system. To verify these conditions, we characterize the stability boundaries using the first two vibration modes and compare them to damping contours obtained by long-time integration of the full nonlinear equations of motion. Simulations show excellent agreement between both approaches. We analyze the effect of the size and location of the piezoelectric patch and the location of the sensor on the stability of the response. We show that the stability boundaries are highly dependent on these parameters. Finally, we implement the controller on a cantilever beam for different controller gain-delay combinations and assess the performance using time histories of the beam response. Numerical simulations clearly demonstrate the controller ability to mitigate vibrations emanating from multiple modes simultaneously.