Nonlinear redesign of vibration energy harvester: Linear operation test and nonlinear simulation of extended bandwidth

This paper deals with vibration energy harvesting tests and measurements in lab conditions and subsequent redesign of tunable parameters. The presented device generates electrical energy from ambient mechanical vibrations, which occur in potential engineering applications. This device could be used for autonomous powering of wireless sensors with the average power consumption in the range of several mW. The presented device harvests maximal electrical power in resonance operation, which is tuned by the seismic mass and the stiffness ratio. The stiffness element, which is based on the magnetic force of repelling rare earth magnets, is used for tuning up of the resonance operation. The linear system harvests electrical energy only in narrow bandwidth of the tuned frequency. The ways of improving the amount of harvested electrical energy in wider frequency range are observed during nonlinear operation. The corrected harvesting system positioning in the principal direction of the excitation acceleration and the nonlinear redesign of the energy harvesting system with extended frequency bandwidth are presented in this paper.