Chaotic Dynamics-Based Analysis of Broadband Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesting Enhanced by Using Nonlinearity

Nonlinear magnetic forces are always used to enlarge resonant bandwidth of vibration energy harvesting systems with piezoelectric cantilever beams. However, how to determine properly the distance between two magnets is one of the key engineering problems. In this paper, the Melnikov theory is introduced to overcome it. Firstly, the Melnikov state-space model of the nonlinear piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting (PVEH) system is built. Based on it, chaotic dynamics mechanisms of achieving broadband PVEH by nonlinearity are exposed by potential function of the unperturbed nonlinear PVEH system. Then the corresponding Melnikov function of the nonlinear PVEH system is defined, based on which two Melnikov necessary conditions of determining the distance are obtained. Finally, numerical simulations are done to testify the theoretic results. The results demonstrate that the distance is closely related to the excitation amplitude and frequency once geometric and material parameters are fixed. Under a single-frequency excitation, the nonlinear PVEH system can generate a periodic vibration around a stable point, a large-amplitude vibration around two stable points, or a chaotic vibration. The proposed method is very valuable for optimally designing and utilizing nonlinear broadband PVEH devices in engineering applications.