Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester for Low Frequency and High Amplitude Applications

An electromagnetic vibrational energy harvester (EVEH) capable of harvesting low-frequency and high-amplitude vibration energy is designed, fabricated and characterized in this paper. The high impact/shock-resistance of the proposed EVEH is enabled by a pair of specially designed dampers. The dampers, combined with a pair of nonlinear magnetic springs, also expands the effective bandwidth of the EVEH device. The fabricated EVEH, with a size of Φ2 cm X 10 cm, is capable of generating an open-circuit peak-to-peak voltage of 4.35 V and an average output power of 55.3 mW under a sinusoidal excitation of ±10g at 48 Hz. The designed shock/impact-resistance of the EVEH is verified by a sinusoidal excitation of ±20g at 18 Hz, and the fabricated EVEH is capable of generating an output voltage of 4.21V steadily.