https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-022-00507-8
Regular Article
Broadband power generation using an array of bistable harvesters
Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 600036, Chennai, India
Received:
1
October
2021
Accepted:
20
February
2022
Published online:
11
March
2022
The present work investigates the potential of a harvesting system comprising an array of mechanically coupled bistable piezoelectric cantilevers under harmonic excitation. The motivation behind taking up this work lies in bettering the bandwidth of standalone harvesters without compromising on the magnitude of harvested power. Numerical studies are carried out to study the nonlinear dynamics and harvesting performance of the harvester array placed on carts coupled in nearest neighbour configuration. The role of important parameters such as the tip mass, coupling springs and cart masses on tailoring the coupled system response are investigated to determine strategies for improved energy harvesting performance. Key findings observed through numerical simulations demonstrate the benefits of exploiting the complex dynamics of coupled bistable systems via parametric tuning for broadband energy harvesting.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022
