A Tri-Stable Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester for Composite Shape Beam: Nonlinear Modeling and Analysis

Abstract

To reveal the nonlinear mechanism of the tri-stable piezoelectric vibration energy harvester based on composite shape beam (TPEH-C) and its influence on the system response, the nonlinear restoring force and the nonlinear magnetic force are discussed and analyzed in this paper. The nonlinear magnetic model is acquired by using equivalent magnetizing current theory, and the nonlinear resilience model is obtained by fitting experimental data. The corresponding distributed parameter model based on generalized Hamiltonian variation principle has been established. Frequency response functions for the TPEH-C are derived according to harmonic balance expansion, and the influence of different magnet distances and different excitation accelerations on the response amplitude and bandwidth of the TPEH-C are investigated. More importantly, the correctness of the theoretical analysis is verified by experiments. The results reveal that the spectrum of composite beam shows hard characteristic and the depth of potential well is changed, which provides a new way to ameliorate the potential well of the TPEH-C. A suitable magnet distance enables the TPEH-C to improve the response amplitude and the effective frequency range. The results in this paper have a theoretical guiding significance for the optimal design and engineering application of the TPEH-C.

A Review of Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesting with Magnetic Coupling Based on Different Structural Characteristics

“…However, due to the barrier in the potential function, the large-amplitude interwell oscillation does not occur all the time, because the intensity of the vibration sources in nature is uncertain. To solve this problem, tristable [ 160 , 161 , 162 , 163 , 164 , 165 , 166 , 167 ], quadstable [ 168 , 169 , 170 , 171 ] and even pentastable [ 172 , 173 , 174 ] configurations were investigated recently. With more potential wells, the potential energy can be distributed more uniformly, and the barriers between the potential wells can be lower, even though the barriers between the potential wells still exist.…”

“…Zhang et al proposed a tristable harvester that comprised a linear-arch composite beam with a tip-magnet attachment and two external magnets. The arched part of the composite beam influenced the response spectrum curve and the potential well depth of this system [ 167 ]. In addition to a one degree of freedom structure, a 2-DOF quadstable harvester was studied [ 171 ].…”

Energy Harvester Sensing

“…The main theme of the research on energy harvester sensors is represented by the low amount of energy. We can therefore distinguish some articles in which the interest of research is on the energy source and the transducer [1][2][3][4], from articles in which the interest is on how to maximize this extracted energy [5,6] or on how it is possible to use these small quantities of energy [7][8][9].…”

“…In [2,3], Zhang et al present research on nonlinear vibration energy harvesting techniques by showing the scientific community new mechanical devices: an arc-shaped piezoelectric bistable vibration energy harvester (ABEH) and a tri-stable piezoelectric vibration energy harvester based on a composite shape beam (TPEH-C). The presented devices are first analyzed in detail by means of a well-developed analytical model and are then tested experimentally.…”

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting from Suspension Structures with Piezoelectric Layers

“…Li et al designed a hybrid generator applied to low-frequency ambient vibrations for energy harvesting, conducted experiments under strong compressive operation modes, and achieved a maximum power of 19.6 mW [ 30 ]. Zhang et al analyzed the nonlinear theory of a piezoelectric vibrational energy harvester and established the nonlinear spring-back model [ 31 ]. Qian et al presented a distributed-parameter model of an axial vibration-based multilayer piezoelectric stack transducer with a connecting rod, and validated its accuracy and reliability by experiments [ 32 ].…”