An Eccentric Electromagnetic Energy Harvester for Rotary System

Recently rotary energy harvester, which can replace traditional batteries to power small electronic devices in the rotary system has been proposed. However, most of the proposed rotary energy harvesters are only can be installed concentrically in rotary system, cannot work in the need of eccentric installation. This paper presents a novel electromagnetic energy harvester that can be used in a rotary system where the energy harvester is required to be installed eccentrically. The rotation mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy through a structure of a cylindrical shell, a magnetic ball and coil, which is based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. A protype of proposed energy harvester and corresponding measurement setup has been built for concept verification. The performance of the proposed energy harvester including open-circuit voltage and output power for resistive load have been preliminarily studied at different rotational speed, eccentric distance and diameter of the magnetic ball. The results reveal that the proposed energy harvester is very promising in the application of self-powered system which requires to be installed eccentrically in rotary system.