Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136: 1145
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01967-y

Regular Article

Tunable double nonlinear design in the energy harvester to enhance energy harvesting

¹ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Measuring Theory and Precision Instrument, School of Instrument Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 230009, Hefei, Anhui, China
² CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials and Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230027, Hefei, China

^a zhx0325@hfut.edu.cn
^f hxdeng@hfut.edu.cn

Received: 28 June 2021
Accepted: 13 September 2021
Published online: 15 November 2021

Abstract

Nonlinear vibration energy harvesting has been mainstream research owing to its characteristics of broadband and high-output. However, the majority of existing energy harvesters are independent nonlinear structures, or one nonlinear structure combined with a linear structure. This article proposed the method that introducing internal nonlinear resonance structure to traditional nonlinear cantilever beam, improving the performance of it in low frequency effectively. Comparison experiments demonstrate that this method can promote energy harvesting with respect to an increase in the working frequency bandwidth by a factor of 4.4. Moreover, the maximum average power density is increased to 3570%. Based on the governing equations, the numerical simulations are implemented, which shows that internal beam with magnet has better performance than internal beam without magnet and its maximum amplitude can be increased by a factor of 7.8. Besides, two internal beams with magnets have the ability of frequency tuning as well. The experiment results and the numerical simulation validate that the superiority of double nonlinear structure, which provides a design idea for energy harvester subsequently.