Adjustable Nonlinear Mechanism System for Wideband Energy Harvesting in Rotational Circumstances

Nonlinear energy harvesters have already been exhibited to draw energy from ambient vibration owing to their particular dynamic characteristics, and are feasible to desirable responses for broadband excitations of bistable and monostable systems. This study proposes an energy harvester for rotational applications, in which a cantilever beam pasted piezoelectric film and magnets with the same polarity are comprised as a nonlinear vibrating system. As the rotationally angular velocity gradually increases, the tensile stress to the cantilever beam is also self-adjusted with the increscent centrifugal force, causing the potential barriers of bistable type become shallow, so that the cantilever beam has the ability to maintain the high energy orbit motion from bistable hardening type to monostable hardening behavior. From the implemented results, the valid bandwidth of angular frequency can be improved from 26 rad/s - 132 rad/s to 15 rad/s - 215 rad/s, under the case of the effect of centrifugal force on nonlinear vibrating behavior. It demonstrates that the centrifugal force can significantly promote the performance of nonlinear energy harvesters.