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A vibration energy harvesting device with bidirectional resonance frequency tunability

Vinod R Challa, M G Prasad, Yong Shi and Frank T Fisher

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Vibration energy harvesting is an attractive technique for potential powering of wireless sensors and low power devices. While the technique can be employed to harvest energy from vibrations and vibrating structures, a general requirement independent of the energy transfer mechanism is that the vibration energy harvesting device operate in resonance at the excitation frequency. Most energy harvesting devices developed to date are single resonance frequency based, and while recent efforts have been made to broaden the frequency range of energy harvesting devices, what is lacking is a robust tunable energy harvesting technique. In this paper, the design and testing of a resonance frequency tunable energy harvesting device using a magnetic force technique is presented. This technique enabled resonance tuning to ± 20% of the untuned resonant frequency. In particular, this magnetic-based approach enables either an increase or decrease in the tuned resonant frequency. A piezoelectric cantilever beam with a natural frequency of 26 Hz is used as the energy harvesting cantilever, which is successfully tuned over a frequency range of 22–32 Hz to enable a continuous power output 240–280 µW over the entire frequency range tested. A theoretical model using variable damping is presented, whose results agree closely with the experimental results. The magnetic force applied for resonance frequency tuning and its effect on damping and load resistance have been experimentally determined.


PACS

46.70.De Beams, plates and shells

46.40.Ff Resonance, damping and dynamic stability

85.50.-n Dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric devices

07.07.Df Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing

77.84.Dy Niobates, titanates, tantalates, PZT ceramics, etc.

Subjects

Condensed matter: electrical, magnetic and optical

Electronics and devices

Instrumentation and measurement

Condensed matter: structural, mechanical & thermal

Dates

Issue 1 (February 2008)

Received 22 September 2007, in final form 19 November 2007

Published 8 January 2008



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