Enhancing mechanical energy harvesting with dynamics escaped from potential well

摘要

The potential of utilizing the dynamics outside the potential well of a device for harvesting energy from vibrations is investigated. A pendulum-type system subjected to parametrical excitation is used to demonstrate the concept. When the dynamics of the device is outside the potential well and stays in stable orbits of period-one rotations, the harvested energy is proportional to the energy level of the orbit. It is neither dependent on the natural frequency of the device nor on the intensity of the excitation. For low-level vibrations, the effectiveness of the proposed method is limited in relatively low frequencies.