A C-Battery Scale Energy Harvester: Part B — Transducer Optimization and Modeling

Author(s):  
Elisabetta Boco ◽  
Valeria Nico ◽  
Ronan Frizzell ◽  
Jeff Punch

A two Degree-of-Freedom (2DoF) nonlinear electromagnetic energy harvester, which employs velocity amplification, with a volume of 26.7cm 3 and 25.6 cm3 (25.5mm diameter and 52.4mm height) is investigated in this work. These dimensions are very close to those of a C-battery (26.2mm diameter and 50mm length, for a volume of 27.8cm3), making the harvester suitable to be integrated in electronic devices. The harvester consists of a Halbach array of magnets oscillating inside a set of seven coils. The use of magnetic springs and the impacts between the two masses, leads to nonlinear harvester behaviour, broadening the harvester’s spectral response. Moreover, the impacts exploit velocity amplification on the secondary (smaller) mass, improving the electromagnetic conversion. The aim of this work is to optimize the performance of the electromagnetic transducer through analytical and numerical methods and to experimentally verify the optimization methods. This paper discusses the magnetic configuration that maximizes the variation of flux density and an analytical model is presented that predicts the optimal number of turns and wire diameter for the coils. A finite element simulation takes the output from the initial optimization calculations and predicts the output voltage of the harvester. Experimental results are then presented where various coil designs are tested and comparisons are made to the numerical results to validate the models. The experimental results also show a high volumetric Figure of Merit (FoMV), which highlights the benefits of the optimisation methods used. Finally, in order to give the reader an understanding of the system performance under real-world vibrations, the system was tested under excitation generated by human motion.

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Huang ◽  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
Keren Dai

Using the piezoelectric effect to harvest energy from surrounding vibrations is a promising alternative solution for powering small electronic devices such as wireless sensors and portable devices. A conventional piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) can only efficiently collect energy within a small range around the resonance frequency. To realize broadband vibration energy harvesting, the idea of multiple-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) PEH to realize multiple resonant frequencies within a certain range has been recently proposed and some preliminary research has validated its feasibility. Therefore, this paper proposed a multi-DOF wideband PEH based on the frequency interval shortening mechanism to realize five resonance frequencies close enough to each other. The PEH consists of five tip masses, two U-shaped cantilever beams and a straight beam, and tuning of the resonance frequencies is realized by specific parameter design. The electrical characteristics of the PEH are analyzed by simulation and experiment, validating that the PEH can effectively expand the operating bandwidth and collect vibration energy in the low frequency. Experimental results show that the PEH has five low-frequency resonant frequencies, which are 13, 15, 18, 21 and 24 Hz; under the action of 0.5 g acceleration, the maximum output power is 52.2, 49.4, 61.3, 39.2 and 32.1 μW, respectively. In view of the difference between the simulation and the experimental results, this paper conducted an error analysis and revealed that the material parameters and parasitic capacitance are important factors that affect the simulation results. Based on the analysis, the simulation is improved for better agreement with experiments.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107754632199358
Author(s):  
Ali Fasihi ◽  
Majid Shahgholi ◽  
Saeed Ghahremani

The potential of absorbing and harvesting energy from a two-degree-of-freedom airfoil using an attachment of a nonlinear energy sink and a piezoelectric energy harvester is investigated. The equations of motion of the airfoil coupled with the attachment are solved using the harmonic balance method. Solutions obtained by this method are compared to the numerical ones of the pseudo-arclength continuation method. The effects of parameters of the integrated nonlinear energy sink-piezoelectric attachment, namely, the attachment location, nonlinear energy sink mass, nonlinear energy sink damping, and nonlinear energy sink stiffness on the dynamical behavior of the airfoil system are studied for both subcritical and supercritical Hopf bifurcation cases. Analyses demonstrate that absorbing vibration and harvesting energy are profoundly affected by the nonlinear energy sink parameters and the location of the attachment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 405-408 ◽  
pp. 1616-1622
Author(s):  
Guo Hui Cao ◽  
Jia Xing Hu ◽  
Kai Zhang ◽  
Min He

In order to research on mechanical properties of flexible suspension bridges, a geometric nonlinear analysis method was used to simulate on the experimental results, and carried on static loading test finally. In the loading test process, the deformations were measured in critical section of the suspension bridge, and displacement values of measured are compared with simulation values of the finite element simulation. Meanwhile the deformations of the main cable sag are observed under classification loading, the results show that the main cable sag increment is basically linear relationship with the increment of mid-span loading and tension from 3L/8 and 5L/8 to L/2 section, the main cable that increasing unit sag required mid-span loads and tension are gradually reduce in near L/4 and 3L/4 sections and gradually increase in near L/8 and 7L/8 sections and almost equal in near L/2, 3L/8 and 5L/8 sections. From the experimental results, the flexible suspension bridge possess good mechanical properties.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 035028 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Geisler ◽  
S Boisseau ◽  
M Perez ◽  
P Gasnier ◽  
J Willemin ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 326-328 ◽  
pp. 1585-1588
Author(s):  
B.J. Shi ◽  
Dong Wei Shu ◽  
J. Luo ◽  
Q.Y. Ng ◽  
J.H.T. Lau

Hard disk drives (HDD) are now the most important means of information storage, and they continue to be made smaller in size, higher in capacity, and lower in cost. The dynamic performance of an HDD has been an increasingly important consideration for its design, as we move forward toward its consumer applications. The dynamic properties of the head arm assembly (HAA) of a micro-drive were investigated using both experimental and numerical techniques. A finite element model for studying the dynamic property of the HAA was created and modified according to the experimental results. Good correlation between the experimental results and those by finite element simulation was achieved.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 085704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Zhao ◽  
Minyao Gan ◽  
Chihang Zhang ◽  
Jundong Wei ◽  
Shaogang Liu ◽  
...  

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bei Zhang ◽  
Qichang Zhang ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Jianxin Han ◽  
Xiaoli Tang ◽  
...  

A novel bistable electromagnetic vibration energy harvester (BEMH) is constructed and optimized in this study, based on a nonlinear system consisting mainly of a flexible membrane and a magnetic spring. A large-amplitude transverse vibration equation of the system is established with the general nonlinear geometry and magnetic force. Firstly, the mathematical model, considering the higher-order nonlinearities given by nonlinear Galerkin method, is applied to a membrane with a co-axial magnet mass and magnetic spring. Secondly, the steady vibration response of the membrane subjected to a harmonic base motion is obtained, and then the output power considering electromagnetic effect is analytically derived. On this basis, a parametric study in a broad frequency domain has been achieved for the BEMH with different radius ratios and membrane thicknesses. It is demonstrated that model predictions are both in close agreement with results from the finite element simulation and experiment data. Finally, the proposed efficient solution method is used to obtain an optimizing strategy for the design of multi-stable energy harvesters with the similar flexible structure.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document