Transduction of a bistable inductive generator driven by white and exponentially correlated Gaussian noise

Abstract

In this theoretical study, the response of an inductive power generator with a bistable symmetric potential to stationary random environmental excitations is investigated. Both white and Ornstein–Uhlenbeck-type excitations are considered. In the white noise limit, the stationary Fokker–Plank–Kolmagorov equation is solved for the exact joint probability density function (PDF) of the response. The PDF is then used to obtain analytical expressions for the response statistics. It is shown that the expected value of the generator's output power is independent of the potential shape leading to the conclusion that under white noise excitations, bistabilities in the potential do not provide any enhancement over the traditional linear resonant generators which have a single-well potential. In the case of Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (exponentially correlated) noise, an approximate expression for the mean power of the generator which depends on the potential shape, the generator's design parameters and the noise bandwidth and intensity is obtained. It is shown that there exists an optimal potential shape which maximizes the output power. This optimal shape guarantees an optimal escapement frequency between the potential wells which remains constant even as the noise intensity is varied.