Scavenging Energy from Ambient Vibrations Using Oscillators with Asymmetrical Potential Wells

摘要

In this study, the potential of using nonlinear oscillators with asymmetrical potential wells to scavenge mechanical energy from ambient vibrations is investigated. Mechanical energy of ambient vibrations is normally distributed in a spectrum of frequencies. To scavenge such energy, methods using linear and nonlinear oscillators have been proposed. In these existing methods, however, the potential wells of the oscillators are symmetrical with only one frequency dominating in the free-vibration response. Such dominance of a single frequency indicates that in the zone of resonance, the response of the oscillator will likely be dominated by a single frequency. Thus, such oscillators do not perform well if there are multiple dominating frequencies in the vibration. To overcome such limitation, a method based on nonlinear oscillator with asymmetrical potential well is proposed. An asymmetrical potential well supports multiple frequencies in the response, as demonstrated by the multiple-frequency dominance in the free-vibration response. As a result, it is more effective in scavenging energy from vibrations of multi-frequency content. In this study, the potential benefits of the system with asymmetrical potential well are numerically studied. The results confirm the effectiveness and improved performance of the proposed method.