Physical realisation of a nonlinear electromagnetic energy harvester for rotational applications

Abstract

Control and structural health monitoring sensors are becoming increasingly common in industrial and household applications due to recent advances reducing their manufacturing costs, size and power consumption. Nevertheless, providing power for these sensors poses a key challenge to engineers, particularly in system locations where limited access renders regular maintenance infeasible due to high associated costs. In the present work, the design and physical prototype testing of a nonlinear electromagnetic vibration energy harvester is presented based on a previously reported concept of the authors. The harvester is activated by the torsional speed fluctuations of a rotating shaft. Experimental testing in a rig driven by an electric motor confirms the harvester’s properties and the modelled oscillatory behaviour. This novel rotational vibration energy harvester concept may generate over 10 mW of electrical power for a broadband speed range of approximately 400 rpm (in the examined rotational system with set fluctuating speed) for wireless sensing purposes on rotating shafts.