Influence of impulse characteristics on realizing high-energy orbits in hybrid energy harvester

Abstract

AbstractEnergy harvesters based on non-linear systems are promising devices for extracting energy from mechanical vibrations. This paper presents a new design of energy harvester consisting of two coupled nonlinear systems; the Duffing oscillator and a system with quasizero stiffness. A numerical analysis of the dynamics of the harvester is carried out, presenting coexisting solutions and their energy efficiencies in both chaotic and periodic motion zones. The root mean squared (RMS) voltage results depend on the dimensionless excitation frequency, where high-energy orbits are coexisting with low-energy orbits. Therefore, the second part of the paper focuses on various strategies for jumps between the orbits using impulses. Different impulse characteristics and their sequences for periodic and chaotic zones are analyzed. Therefore, a detailed analysis is presented for many strategies using an impulse excitation diagram (IED) as a numerical tool for accurately estimating the amplitude of the impulse, its duration, and the moment of initiation. The probability of achieving a given solution is also determined. The simulation results show that achieving the most effective orbit with a single impulse, as well as several impulses, requires similar energy. However, the advantage of the step-by-step method is the lower energy required to initiate a single impulse which enables the use of a smaller regulator. This work can be a valuable tool for designing various systems and strategies for changing the orbit of a solution.