Nonlinear dynamic analysis of a spring coupled double beam based piezoelectric energy harvester under parametric base excitation

Abstract

This paper proposes a base excited, spring coupled double cantilever beam with attached tip mass based piezoelectric energy harvester. The dimensions of the beams are so chosen that the system experiences 1:1 internal resonance. The governing coupled electro-mechanical equations of motion of the system are obtained by using the Lagrange principle which is reduced to the temporal form by using generalized Galerkin’s method. The governing temporal equations of motion are in the form of that of a parametrically excited coupled system with geometric and inertial nonlinearities. These nonlinear equations are solved using the method of multiple scales and the results are compared with those solved by numerical method (4th order Runge Kutta method) for principal parametric resonance conditions. Parametric studies are conducted by varying the tip masses of the beams, coupled spring stiffness, load resistance, external excitation frequency and excitation amplitude. Results show that by introducing spring coupling, the system operational frequency range increases significantly and also energy transfer process takes place due to the internal resonance. Significant enhancement of voltage and power are observed in the present work in comparison to the earlier studied equivalent single beam-based energy harvester.