Abstract
The power generation capability of an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester augmented with an additional coil was investigated and compared with that of a standard single coil electromagnetic energy harvester. A single degree of freedom model and the corresponding equivalent electric circuit were employed for the analysis of the standard and of the augmented harvesters. The harvester model was validated by means of an accurate experimental characterization of a commercial electromagnetic harvester, i.e., the model-D by ReVibe. The electric circuits for the standard and for the augmented harvesters were implemented by electronic components and experimentally tested to determine the maximum power they are able to generate in four test conditions. Results from simulations and from experiments showed significant improvement of the power extraction performance exhibited by the double coil energy harvester, particularly at frequencies lower than the harvester mechanical resonance frequency.
Highlights
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are an effective, sustainable, and cheap solution for implementing wireless sensor networks and for the monitoring of transportation vehicles, of industrial implants (Industry 4.0), of the environment and of smart cities [1]
An alternative solution is represented by energy harvesting systems [2,3] that are able to convert into electricity otherwise wasted forms of energy, without suffering from the problems of disposable batteries [4]
Simulations and experimental tests were performed to show that the double coil electromagnetic harvester is able to deliver an amount of energy significantly greater than that provided by a standard single coil electromagnetic harvester
Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are an effective, sustainable, and cheap solution for implementing wireless sensor networks and for the monitoring of transportation vehicles, of industrial implants (Industry 4.0), of the environment and of smart cities [1]. In most practical cases, the ambient vibrations are frequency-varying or exhibit a random behavior with an energy content that is distributed over a wide frequency spectrum [12] For these reasons, many research efforts have been made to increase the energy efficiency of resonant electromagnetic harvesters by resorting to harvester arrays [13,14], non-linear harvesters [15,16], and various electrical or mechanical tuning techniques [17]. In this paper the performance of a resonant electromagnetic energy harvester characterized by a double coil is investigated and the power extraction capabilities of this harvester are compared with those of a standard single coil resonant electromagnetic harvester The latter device exploits the time-varying relative displacement between a magnet and a coil caused by the ambient vibrations to generate electrical energy. Test results showed that the double coil harvester was able to significantly increase the power efficiency at frequencies lower than the mechanical resonance frequency
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