Using time delay in the nonlinear oscillations of magnetic levitation for simultaneous energy harvesting and vibration suppression

Abstract

In this paper, the nonlinear oscillations of magnetic levitation in the presence of a time delay is investigated, with the purpose of simultaneous energy harvesting and vibration suppression. To harvest energy, a coil with seven layers of 36 gage wire wound around the outer casing is utilized. Although the proposed control feedback consumes some power, the results show the harvestable power can be much larger than the consumed power, which makes the proposed concept feasible. The first-order perturbation method is utilized to examine the possibility of energy harvesting and vibration suppression for different selections of the delay parameters, the distances between the magnets and the external load resistances. In addition, the stability map of the time-delayed control is analytically determined. The influence of the time delay parameters chosen from Single Periodic Solutions (SPS) and Multiple Periodic Solutions (MPS) on the vibration and power amplitudes is studied. It is shown that a point chosen from the MPS region enables the system to harvest power over a broad range of excitation frequencies. Also, the effect of the distance between the magnets on the frequency response of the system is examined. In addition, to select the optimum value for the distance between the magnets for different values of the time delay parameters, a parameter called the Perfection Rate (PR), which reflects both the electrical and mechanical behavior of the system, is used. Finally, it is shown that the presence of the time delay and a point chosen from the MPS region enables the system to harvest more power over a broad range of excitation frequency and to suppress higher levels of vibration, than for a point chosen from the SPS region and without time delay.