A novel high-power density, low-frequency electromagnetic vibration energy harvester based on anti-phase motion

Abstract

The paper proposes a novel electromagnetic vibration energy harvester based on the concept of anti-phase vibration. Anti-phase motion is desirable in electromagnetic vibration energy harvesting applications as it results in a higher power output due to the increase in the relative velocity between the coil and the magnet components. The proposed device achieves anti-phase motion at any driving frequency due to a developed new design. The harvester was experimentally tested under a base input of 0.49 g, 0.38 g and 0.36 g, recording a power density of 765.3 Wm−3, 420.8 Wm−3 and 587.2 Wm−3 respectively under a resonant frequency of 11.8 Hz. Although the device has not yet been optimised, these values obtained are already comparable, if not higher than the recent previous works on vibration energy harvesting. In addition, the observed experimental results have well agreed with the results obtained through the mathematical model, derived in this study. The original design was then optimised to determine the optimum load resistance, mechanical arm length and component dimensions that would result in the maximum power output. Considering a base input of 0.36 g and the same friction and damping forces as obtained from the experiment, a power density of 1708.5 Wm−3 could theoretically be achieved under the same natural frequency.