Beam design for voice coil motors used for energy harvesting purpose with low frequency vibrations: A finite element analysis

Abstract

In this study, a numerical approach is established to design a beam coupled to a Voice Coil Motor (VCM) with the aim to maximize the displacement in the inductive transducer. A finite element model is developed to simulate a VCM with different beams applying a harmonic analysis. The VCM is extracted from a recycled hard disk drive (HDD) and a parametric modal analysis is performed to identify the material parameters of the HDD and the beam. These parameters are obtained comparing the real vibration modes and natural frequencies (VCM-beam) with those determined from the finite element model. A numerical-experimental case study is carried out to demonstrate that if a beam is designed for a specific low frequency vibration between 0 and [Formula: see text], the displacements are maximized in the VCM. For this purpose, real acceleration measurements taken from three individuals are used to provide the vibration signals in the numerical model. A beam is designed for one of the individuals using the natural frequency values determined from the measured signals. Results show that the displacements are maximized in the model which coincides with the natural frequency of the chosen individual. The main purpose of this research is to establish a design tool for energy harvesting purposes with VCM based on low frequency vibration sources as for example gait motions.