The bandwidth of optimized nonlinear vibration-based energy harvesters

A. Cammarano*, S. A. Neild, S. G. Burrow, D. J. Inman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)
459 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In an attempt to improve the performance of vibration-based energy harvesters, many authors suggest that nonlinearities can be exploited to increase the bandwidths of linear devices. Nevertheless, the complex dependence of the response upon the input excitation has made a realistic comparison of linear harvesters with nonlinear energy harvesters challenging. In a previous work it has been demonstrated that for a given frequency of excitation, it is possible to achieve the same maximum power for a nonlinear harvester as that for a linear harvester, provided that the resistance and the linear stiffness of both are optimized. This work focuses on the bandwidths of linear and nonlinear harvesters and shows which device is more suitable for harvesting energy from vibrations. The work considers different levels of excitation as well as different frequencies of excitation. In addition, the effect of the mechanical damping of the oscillator on the power bandwidth is shown for both the linear and nonlinear cases.

Original languageEnglish
Article number055019
Number of pages9
JournalSmart Materials and Structures
Volume23
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Mar 2014

Keywords

  • energy harvesting
  • nonlinear dynamics
  • optimization
  • continuation
  • electrical load
  • bandwidth

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