Analytical design and simulation studies of a conical energy harvester for enhanced power output

Abstract

A primary method of energy harvesting from kinetic energy is constructed by levitating a magnet between stationary magnets in Levitation Based Energy Harvesting (LBEH). The levitating magnet movements are captured in the coil which is wound across magnets and the voltage is generated. Vertical movement of levitating magnet is only considered for designing LBEH. In this work, levitation magnet is allowed to move in vertical as well as in angular space with all directions. The two stationary magnets are replaced with one spring fixed at the bottom so that the levitation magnet absorbs vertical and angular movement due to vibration absorbed by the spring. This arrangement is realized with a mathematical model and simulation that results in conical shape of coil. The designed Conical Energy Harvester (CEH) is able to capture the movement of levitation magnet due to vibrations absorbed by the spring in all the directions. The simulation results indicate that the voltage developed by CEH is 1.27 times higher than that of voltage developed by LBEH.