Numerical Investigation on Installation Position Effect of a Miniature Vertical-Pendulum-Type Inertial Energy Harvester for Underwater Mooring Platforms

To investigate the installation position effect of a miniature vertical-pendulum-type inertial energy harvester for underwater mooring platforms, according to the nonlinear coupled equation of the platform and the inertial pendulum established by Newton-Euler method, the power performance of the miniature vertical-pendulum-type inertial energy harvester has been investigated using the Runge-Kuta method, respectively, under different dampings and different motion excitation frequencies. The numerical research results show that when the installation position is a particular value, the harvesting energy could be zero. When the installation positions are other values, energy harvester system shows the characteristics of classical vibration systems at the near-natural frequencies. And the harvested power has a square relation with the installation position value. At each different frequency, there is a zero power position, which indicates that the installation position of the miniature vertical-pendulum-type inertial energy harvester should be reasonable. The zero power installation position is related to the excitation frequency.