https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-02583-7
Regular Article
Broadband vibration energy harvesting by application of stochastic resonance from rotational environments
1 Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
2 Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Mappin Street Sheffield S1 3JD, UK
a e-mail: zysgluck@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
b e-mail: topzrc@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Received: 26 June 2015
Revised: 9 September 2015
Published online: 20 November 2015
A model for energy harvesting from a rotating automotive tyre is suggested in which the principle of stochastic resonance is advantageously exploited. A bistable response characteristic is obtained by recourse a small harvester comprising a magnetically repellant configuration in which an instrumented cantilever beam can flip between two physical response states when suitably excited by the rotation of a car wheel into which it is fitted. The rotation of the wheel creates a periodic modulation which enables stochastic resonance to take place and as a consequence of this for energy to be harvested from road noise transmitted through the tyre. An optimised mathematical model of the system is presented based on a series of experimental tests and it is shown that a ten-fold increase in harvested energy over a comparable monostable case is feasible. The suggested application for this harvester is to provide electrical power for a tyre pressure monitoring system.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2015
