Nonlinear dynamics in a graphene nanostructured device for energy harvesting

Abstract

Nonlinearities have been shown to play an important role in increasing the extracted energy of energy harvesting devices at the macro and micro scales. Vibration-based energy harvesting on the nano scale has also received attention. In this paper, we characterize the nonlinear dynamical behavior of a strained nanostructured graphene for its potential use in energy harvesting applications. A compressed vibrating membrane graphene sheet free from any external excitation is first studied. We present a continuous time dynamical model of the system in the form of a double-well single degree of freedom system. Equilibrium points are obtained and their stability analysis is carried out. Then, random vibrations are considered as the main ambient energy source for the system and its performances in terms of the well occupation zones, RMS value of the position, and the corresponding energy harvested are presented in the steady state non-equilibrium regime when the noise level is considered as a control parameter. From this model, nonlinear analysis is carried out by computing state space trajectories, probability density and FFT spectra under a deterministic excitation. The ultimate goal of this parameter space exploration based upon a behavioral model is to provide design-oriented guidelines for engineering graphene-based mechanical harvestersPostprint (published version

Nonlinear Dynamics of an Ambient Noise Driven Array of Coupled Graphene Nanostructured Devices for Energy Harvesting

“…The nonlinear dynamics of a single graphene membrane has been studied in [6] and [8]. We resume here the results for comparison with the coupled graphene membranes.…”

I-V characteristics of in-plane and out-of-plane strained edge-hydrogenated armchair graphene nanoribbons

“…There is an increasing interest in examining their mechanical [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] and electronic properties [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] under different constrains such as tensile stress to predict the behavior of future possible devices. Particularly, strain studies on graphene nanoribbons are gaining much attention as the control of their mechanical deformation could allow the creation of novel devices for energy harvesting [83][84][85][86] . There exist many reports on the electronic structure modification via strain engineering of simulated systems of different edge type, edge decoration, shape, and width [46][47][48][49][50][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96] .…”