Energy Harvesting Using an Analog Circuit under Multimodal Vibration

Abstract EN

The efficiency of harvesting energy from a vibrating structure using a piezoelectric transducer and a simple analog circuit is investigated experimentally.

This analog circuit was originally invented for a synchronized switch damping on inductor (SSDI) technique, which enhances the damping of mechanical vibration.

In this study, the circuit is used to implement a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) technique.

A multiple degree of freedom (MDOF) structure is excited by single sinusoidal forces at its resonant frequencies and by random forces.

The piezoelectric transducer converts this mechanical energy into electrical energy which is harvested using a standard rectifier bridge circuit with and without our analog circuit.

Experimental results show that our analog circuit makes it possible to harvest twice as much energy under both single sinusoidal and random vibration excitations.