An autoparametric energy harvester

This paper presents a numerical study of an autoparametric system composed of two elements: a pendulum and an excited nonlinear oscillator. Owing to an inertial coupling between the two elements, different types of motion are possible, from periodic to chaotic. This study examines a linear induction of an energy harvester depending on the pendulum motion. The harvester consists of a cylindrical permanent magnet mounted on a rotor and of four windings fixed to the housing as a stator. When the pendulum is rotating or swinging, the converter is generating energy due to magnetic induction. In this paper, a method utilizing parametrical resonance for harvesting energy from low frequency vibrations is studied. The authors compare energy induced by different types of pendulum motion: swinging, rotation and chaotic dynamics. Additionally, voltage values for different parameters of excitation are estimated.     

Electromagnetic ferrofluid-based energy harvester

This Letter investigates the use of ferrofluids for vibratory energy harvesting. In particular, an electromagnetic micro-power generator which utilizes the sloshing of a ferrofluid column in a seismically-excited tank is proposed to transform mechanical motions directly into electricity. Unlike traditional electromagnetic generators that implement a solid magnet, ferrofluids can easily conform to different shapes and respond to very small acceleration levels offering an untapped opportunity to design scalable energy harvesters. The feasibility of the proposed concept is demonstrated and its efficacy is discussed through several experimental studies.     

采用磁电换能器的振动能量采集器

采用磁致伸缩/压电层合磁电换能器设计了一个振动能量采集器,该能量采集器采用悬臂梁作为振动敏感机构,并用四个NdFeB磁铁组成磁路放在悬臂梁末端.该磁路在空气隙中产生梯度较大的非均匀磁场,使得磁电换能器在较小的振动下感应到较大的磁场变化量,输出较高的功率.利用等效磁荷理论,分析了空气隙磁场分布以及振动时磁路受到的磁力,并用林斯泰特-庞加莱法研究了能量采集器的非线性振动特性,同时将能量采集器的振动方程和换能器的磁电特性结合,分析了能量采集器谐振时的机-磁-电转换特性.通过实验表明：理论与实验符合得较好,且在加 关键词： 振动能量采集 磁致伸缩/压电层合材料 机磁电转换 非线性振动     

A nonlinear energy sink with an energy harvester: Transient responses

This paper investigates energy harvesting using nonlinear energy sink. First a novel apparatus is described in detail outlining how the essential nonlinearity and energy harvesting are achieved. Then the system modeling is addressed, including the equations of motion for the mechanical system and the electromechanical system, and a formula for the transduction factor. The experimental identification is conducted to determine several key parameters and relationships. Using the established models, a computer simulation is carried out to investigate the apparatus?s performance under transient responses in terms of vibration absorption and energy harvesting. Finally experiments are conducted to validate the simulation results. It is shown that the system performs well, being capable of energy localization as well as broad band vibration absorption. The system is also shown to be capable of harvesting energy.     

Potential of a piezoelectric energy harvester from sea waves

A sea wave energy harvester from the longitudinal wave motion of water particles is developed. The harvester consisting of a cantilever substrate attached by piezoelectric patches and a proof mass is used to collect electrical energy owing to the electromechanical coupling effect of the piezoelectric patches from the longitudinal wave motion. To describe the energy harvesting process, a mathematical model is developed to calculate the output charge and voltage from the piezoelectric patches according to the Airy linear wave theory and classical elastic beam model. Results show that the mean value of the generated power increases with the increase in the ratio of the width to the thickness of the cantilever, the wave height, the sea depth (which equals to the cantilever height in this study), the ratio of the proof mass to the cantilever mass, and the ratio of the sea depth to the wave length. A value of the power up to 55 W can be realized for a practical sea wave with the values of the sea depth, wave height and wave length to be 3 m, 2 m, and 15 m, respectively. The collected power harvesting with respect to different categories of the sea waves are provided. Our simulations also show the generated electric power can be further increased by an increase in dimensions of the harvester considering the scale effect. This research develops a new technique for energy harvesting from sea waves by piezoelectric energy harvesters.     

Modeling a novel energy harvester working in Lame mode

A new square shaped piezoelectric bimorph structure for energy scavenging purposes has been proposed and simulated. It is derived from theoretical analysis that the output power of the structure is proportional to the value of the resonant frequency. The device working in Lame mode has a much higher resonant frequency of 2.39 MHz than devices working in ordinary bending modes, which is expected to significantly increase the energy output of radioisotope power generators (RPGs). The results of static analysis and dynamic response show that output voltage is linear with the applied load; the output power is quadratic with the applied load.     

介质损耗与电磁能量

根据能流密度公式,推出时谐场中存在线性有损介质情形的坡印亭定理.与能量守恒定律结合,得到极化损耗、磁化损耗和焦耳损耗功率密度公式,以及有损介质中的电磁场能量密度公式.最后,推出上述各量的平均值公式.     

An investigation into the simultaneous use of a resonator as an energy harvester and a vibration absorber

A mass–spring–damper system is at the core of both a vibration absorber and a harvester of energy from ambient vibrations. If such a device is attached to a structure that has a high impedance, then it will have very little effect on the vibrations of the structure, but it can be used to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical energy (act as an energy harvester). However, if the same device is attached to a structure that has a relatively low impedance, then the device may attenuate the vibrations as it may act as both a vibration absorber and an energy harvester simultaneously. In this paper such a device is discussed. Two situations are considered; the first is when the structure is excited with broadband random excitation and the second is when the structure is excited by a single frequency. The optimum parameters of the device for both energy harvesting and vibration attenuation are discussed for these two cases. For random excitation it is found that if the device is optimized for vibration suppression, then this is also adequate for maximizing the energy absorbed (harvested), and thus a single device can effectively suppress vibration and harvest energy at the same time. For single frequency excitation this is found not to be the case. To maximize the energy harvested, the natural frequency of the system (host structure and absorber) has to coincide with the forcing frequency, but to minimize vibration of the host structure, the natural frequency of the absorber has to coincide with the forcing frequency. In this case, therefore, a single resonator cannot effectively suppress vibration and harvest energy at the same time.     

A non-ideal portal frame energy harvester controlled using a pendulum

A model of energy harvester based on a simple portal frame structure is presented. The system is considered to be non-ideal system (NIS) due to interaction with the energy source, a DC motor with limited power supply and the system structure. The nonlinearities present in the piezoelectric material are considered in the piezoelectric coupling mathematical model. The system is a bi-stable Duffing oscillator presenting a chaotic behavior. Analyzing the average power variation, and bifurcation diagrams, the value of the control variable that optimizes power or average value that stabilizes the chaotic system in the periodic orbit is determined. The control sensitivity is determined to parametric errors in the damping and stiffness parameters of the portal frame. The proposed passive control technique uses a simple pendulum to tuned to the vibration of the structure to improve the energy harvesting. The results show that with the implementation of the control strategy it is possible to eliminate the need for active or semi active control, usually more complex. The control also provides a way to regulate the energy captured to a desired operating frequency.     

Modeling of a nanoscale flexoelectric energy harvester with surface effects

This work presents the modeling of a beam energy harvester scavenging energy from ambient vibration based on the phenomenon of flexoelectricity. By considering surface elasticity, residual surface stress, surface piezoelectricity and bulk flexoelectricity, a modified Euler-Bernoulli beam model for the energy harvester is developed. After deriving the requisite energy expressions, the extended Hamilton's principle and the assumed-modes method are employed to obtain the discrete electromechanical Euler-Lagrange's equations. Then, the expressions of the steady-state electromechanical responses are given for harmonic base excitation. Numerical simulations are conducted to show the output voltage and the output power of the flexoelectric energy harvesters with different materials and sizes. Particular emphasis is given to the surface effects on the performance of the energy harvesters. It is found that the surface effects are sensitive to the beam geometries and the surface material constants, and the effect of residual surface stress is more significant than that of the surface elasticity and the surface piezoelectricity. The axial deformation of the beam is also considered in the model to account for the electromechanical coupling due to piezoelectricity, and results indicate that piezoelectricity will diminish the output electrical quantities for the case investigated. This work could lead to the development of flexoelectric energy harvesters that can make the micro- and nanoscale sensor systems autonomous.     

Enhancement of image quality by using metamaterial inspired energy harvester

Metamaterial energy harvester based subwavelength imaging structure is presented. Besides, 2×2 array patch antenna is designed to create incident radiated signal towards the proposed harvester structure. Harvested energy is converted to DC voltage signal by using Schottky diodes and each cell is represented by 256 grey levelled pixel value. Therefore, any incident electromagnetic wave placed in the operating frequency range can be monitorized. In the experimental study, experiments are realized with and without antenna to investigate the effects of instantaneous electromagnetic waves and the observed images. Afterwards, another experiment is conducted to observe the effects of metal plate which is located between the antenna and the harvester structure. The last experiment is performed by using a Yagi Uda antenna for sub-wavelength imaging. The proposed harvester structure can be used in various applications such as energy harvesting, incident wave tracing, crack detection, spy device detection, medical imaging, and so on.     

A multi-stable energy harvester: Dynamic modeling and bifurcation analysis

A theoretical investigation is conducted on the dynamic and energetic characteristics of a multi-stable bimorph cantilever energy harvester that uses magnetic attraction effect. The multi-stable energy harvester under study is composed of a bimorph cantilever beam with soft magnetic tip and two externally fixed permanent magnets that are arranged in series. With this configuration, the magnetic force and the moment that are exerted on the cantilever tip tend to be highly dependent on the magnetic field induced by the external magnets. Such an energy harvester can possess multi-stable potential functions, ranging from mono-stable to penta-stable. The mechanism that governs the formation of this multi-stability is thoroughly identified and examined thorough a bifurcation analysis performed on the system?s equilibrium solutions. From this analysis, it is found that the transitions between these multi-stable states occur through very complicated bifurcation scenarios that include degenerate pitchfork bifurcations and mergers of pitchfork bifurcations or saddle-node bifurcations. Bifurcation set diagram is obtained, which is composed of five separate parametric regions, from mono- to penta-stability. The resulting stability map satisfactorily describes the multi-stable characteristics of the present energy harvester. In addition, the dynamic and energetic characteristics of the present multi-stable energy harvester are more thoroughly examined using its potential energy diagrams and a series of numerical simulations, and the obtained results are compared with those for the equivalent bi-stable cases.     

带有分数阶阻尼的压电能量采集系统相干共振

研究了含分数阶阻尼的双稳态能量采集系统的相干共振. 建立了带有分数阶阻尼的轴向受压梁压电能量采集系统动力学模型. 对于分数阶方程, 采用Euler-Maruyama-Leipnik方法进行求解, 计算了不同阻尼阶数下的能量采集系统的信噪比、响应均值、跃迁数目等统计物理量. 结果表明: 此压电能量采集系统在随机激励下可以实现相干共振, 阻尼阶数对相干共振的临界噪声强度和相干共振幅值有很大影响. 关键词： 分数阶阻尼 随机激励 能量采集系统 相干共振     

Has the Lorentz-covariant electromagnetic force law been directly tested experimentally?

So far, no convincing experimental evidence for the Lorentz-covariant electromagnetic force law has been reported. This paper utilizes an available experiment, which is often claimed as one of the most precise experiments in modern physics, to analyze the Lorentz-covariant electromagnetic force law. The Lorentz-covariant electromagnetic force law does not receive convincing confirmation by that experiment; rather, its analysis suggests that the Lorentz-covariant electromagnetic force law might be only approximately true. A clean experiment is proposed to test the Lorentz-covariant electromagnetic force law, avoiding ambiguities in the physical meaning of measures in the experiment and complications by other theoretical bones of contention than Einstein's special relativity itself. The proposed experiment can be performed with high precision within present technology.     

Investigations of a nonlinear energy harvester with a bistable potential well

This paper investigates a nonlinear energy harvester that uses magnetic interactions to create an inertial generator with a bistable potential well. The motivating hypothesis for this work was that nonlinear behavior could be used to improve the performance of an energy harvester by broadening its frequency response. Theoretical investigations study the harvester's response when directly powering an electrical load. Both theoretical and experimental tests show that the potential well escape phenomenon can be used to broaden the frequency response of an energy harvester.     

Nonlinear dynamics of a bistable piezoelectric-composite energy harvester for broadband application

The continuing need for reduced power requirements for small electronic components, such as wireless sensor networks, has prompted renewed interest in recent years for energy harvesting technologies capable of capturing energy from ambient vibrations. A particular focus has been placed on piezoelectric materials and devices due to the simplicity of the mechanical to electrical energy conversion and their high strain energy densities compared to electrostatic and electromagnetic equivalents. In this paper an arrangement of piezoelectric layers attached to a bistable asymmetric laminate is investigated experimentally to understand the dynamic response of the structure and power generation characteristics. The inherent bistability of the underlying structure is exploited for energy harvesting since a transition from one stable configuration to another, or “snap-through”, is used to repeatedly strain the surface bonded piezoelectric and generate electrical energy. This approach has been shown to exhibit high levels of power extraction over a wide range of vibrational frequencies. Using high speed digital image correlation, a variety of dynamic modes of oscillation are identified in the harvester. The sensitivity of such modes to changes in vibration frequency and amplitude are investigated. Power outputs are measured for repeatable snap-through events of the device and are correlated with the measured modes of oscillation. The typical power generated is approximately 3.2?mW, comparing well with the needs of typical wireless senor node applications.     

Stationary response of nonlinear magneto-piezoelectric energy harvester systems under stochastic excitation

Recent years have shown increasing interest of researchers in energy harvesting systems designed to generate electrical energy from ambient energy sources, such as mechanical excitations. In a lot of cases excitation patterns of such systems exhibit random rather than deterministic behaviour with broad-band frequency spectra. In this paper, we study the efficiency of vibration energy harvesting systems with stochastic ambient excitations by solving corresponding Fokker-Planck equations. In the system under consideration, mechanical energy is transformed by a piezoelectric transducer in the presence of mechanical potential functions which are governed by magnetic fields applied to the device. Depending on the magnet positions and orientations the vibrating piezo beam system is subject to characteristic potential functions, including single and double well shapes. Considering random excitation, the probability density function (pdf) of the state variables can be calculated by solving the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation. For this purpose, the pdf is expanded into orthogonal polynomials specially adapted to the problem and the residual is minimized by a Galerkin procedure. The power output has been estimated as a function of basic potential function parameters determining the characteristic pdf shape.