Modeling and analysis of a horizontally-aligned energy harvester

Abstract

In this paper we analyse an impact-type vibration energy harvester. In this study, the harvester is positioned so that the electromagnetic transducer moves along a horizontal linear guide when subjected to base excitations. The governing equation is a nonsmooth second order differential equation which cannot be solved analytically. Therefore, the averaging method is used to investigate its response. Experimental results are compared with the analytical solution to validate it. The results show that the existence of the nonlinearity in the system enables harvesting at low frequencies, increase the bandwidth, and enhances the output power significantly.