Generalized Energy Balanced Method for a Combined Nonlinear Vibration Absorber Energy Harvester with Nonlinear Energy Sink

Abstract

Energy harvesting from vibrations for powering low power electronic devices gained attention in recent years. In this work, a combined vibration absorber energy harvester system is investigated. The harmonically excited primary system is attached with a nonlinear energy sink (NES) which consists of a mass, an essentially nonlinear element, and a damper. The energy transfer from the primary system to the NES takes place in an irreversible manner, confined to the NES, and dissipated through the damper which is harvested by using piezoelectric transduction mechanism. A generalized harmonic energy balance method (HEBM) is developed to analyze the system to generate the periodic solutions. HEBM is found to be an efficient method to obtain the periodic solutions. The energy transfer from the system to the NES is further investigated numerically and the presence of strongly modulated response (SMR) enhances the energy transfer. Primary system response, NES response, and voltage generated are obtained for frequency variation using harmonic balance method (HBM) combined with a continuation method. The frequency response plot shows the existence of multiple solution regions. HEBM along with numerical solution and HBM is found to be an effective tool in understanding the dynamics of multifunctional energy harvesting systems.