https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-02594-4
Regular Article
Internal resonance for nonlinear vibration energy harvesting
1 G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
2 College of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Vibrations and Strength of Mechanical Structures, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
a e-mail: alper.erturk@me.gatech.edu
Received: 21 August 2015
Revised: 9 September 2015
Published online: 20 November 2015
The transformation of waste vibration energy into low-power electricity has been heavily researched over the last decade to enable self-sustained wireless electronic components. Monostable and bistable nonlinear oscillators have been explored by several research groups in an effort to enhance the frequency bandwidth of operation. Linear two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) configurations as well as the combination of a nonlinear single-DOF harvester with a linear oscillator to constitute a nonlinear 2-DOF harvester have also been explored to develop broadband energy harvesters. In the present work, the concept of nonlinear internal resonance in a continuous frame structure is explored for broadband energy harvesting. The L-shaped beam-mass structure with quadratic nonlinearity was formerly studied in the nonlinear dynamics literature to demonstrate modal energy exchange and the saturation phenomenon when carefully tuned for two-to-one internal resonance. In the current effort, piezoelectric coupling and an electrical load are introduced, and electromechanical equations of the L-shaped energy harvester are employed to explore primary resonance behaviors around the first and the second linear natural frequencies for bandwidth enhancement. Simulations using approximate analytical frequency response equations as well as numerical solutions reveal significant bandwidth enhancement as compared to a typical linear 2-DOF counterpart. Vibration and voltage responses are explored, and the effects of various system parameters on the overall dynamics of the internal resonance-based energy harvesting system are reported.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2015
