Enhancing the performance of backpack energy harvester using nonlinear inerter-based two degrees of freedom design

Mingyi Liu, Wei Che Tai, Lei Zuo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

In many vibration energy harvesting systems, the vibration stroke is limited by the physical space constraint. Furthermore, when using an oscillating backpack to harvest energy from human walking, the stroke is of great concern to human comfort. In this paper, a nonlinear inerter-based two degrees of freedom (2DOF) energy harvesting system that can harvest large power at a limited stroke is proposed. The inerter nonlinearity is achieved by adding a mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) to the system. The design and modeling of the nonlinear inerter-based 2DOF energy harvesting device are explained in detail. The mechanical system is then converted to an analogous electrical model for simulation and optimization. Optimal power is achieved while the stroke is limited to a desired value. It is shown that the maximum stroke over the working frequency range can be reduced 32% after the introducing the MMR to this linear 2DOF system. The maximum stroke over the working frequency range can be further reduced while the power is not significantly compromised by using difference electrical impedance. Although the maximum average power output is decreased compared with the linear 2DOF system, the nonlinear inerter-based 2DOF system has a larger power output compared with the optimal single degree of freedom (SDOF) system with almost the same maximum stroke. Finally, the modeling and simulation results are validated by experiments. The nonlinear inerter-based 2DOF design can be applied to vibration energy harvesting systems to obtain large power with limited stroke.

Original languageEnglish
Article number025007
JournalSmart Materials and Structures
Volume29
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Energy harvesting
  • mechanical motion rectifier
  • nonlinear inerter
  • stroke limit
  • two degrees of freedom

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