The problem of a scalable energy supply is one of the biggest issues in miniaturizing electronic devices. Advances in technology have reduced the power consumption of electronic devices such as wireless sensors, data transmitters, and medical implants to the point where harvesting ambient vibration, a universal and widely available source of energy, has become a viable alternative to costly and bulky traditional batteries. However, implementation of vibratory energy harvesters is currently impeded by three main challenges: broadband harvesting, low-frequency harvesting at small (micro) scales, and robust energy harvesting at presence of parametric uncertainties. This thesis investigates two main directions for effective vibration energy harvesting: (i) fundamental limits to nonlinear energy harvesting and techniques to approach them, and (ii) robust energy harvesting under uncertainties. As well as being of fundamental scientific interest, understanding maximal power limits is essential for assessment of the technology potential and it also provides a broader perspective on the current harvesting mechanisms and guidance in their improvement. We begin by developing a general framework and model hierarchy for the derivation of fundamental limits of the nonlinear energy harvesting rate based on Euler-Lagrangian variational approach. The framework allows for an easy incorporation of almost any constraints and arbitrary forcing statistics and represents the maximal harvesting rate as a solution of either a set of DAEs or a standard nonlinear optimization problem. Closed-form expressions are derived for two cases of damping-dominated and displacement-constrained motion. Stemming from the study of fundamental limits, we present an almost-universal strategy termed buy-low-sell-high (BLSH) to maximize the harvested energy for a wide range of set-ups and excitation statistics. We further propose two techniques to realize the non-resonant BLSH strategy, namely latch-assisted harvester and adaptive bistable harvester. To validate the efficacy of the proposed strategy and practical techniques, we perform a simulation experiment by exposing the said harvesters to harmonic and experimental, random walking-motion excitations; it is shown that they outperform their linear and conventional bistable counterparts in a wide range of harmonic excitation and random vibration. Furthermore, we propose to harvest energy by exploiting surface instability or in general instability in layered composites which is, in part, motivated by the BLSH strategy. Instabilities in soft matter and composite structures e.g. wrinkling allow large local strains to take place throughout the entire structure and at regular patterns. Unlike conventional harvesting techniques, this allows to harvest energy from the entire volume of the structure e.g. by attaching piezoelectric patches at large-strain locations throughout the structure. We show that this significantly improves the power to volume ratios of the harvesting devices. In addition, these structural instabilities are non-resonant that consequently enhances robustness of such harvesters with respect to excitation characteristics. The high efficacy of energy harvesting via structural instabilities, in part, is attributed to its ability to approximately follow the BLSH logic. Additionally, we put forth the idea of extending this idea to control the instability; and hence, extend the application of the aforementioned idea from energy harvesting to a whole new level of tunable material/structures with a myriad of applications from electromechanical sensors and amplifiers to fast-motion actuators in soft robotics. And last but not least, to more specifically address the robustness issues of passive harvesters, we propose a new modeling philosophy for optimization under uncertainty; optimization for the worst-case scenario (minimum power) rather than for the ensemble expectation of the power. The proposed optimization philosophy is practically very useful when there is a minimum requirement on the harvested power. We formulate the problems of uncertainty propagation and optimization under uncertainty in a generic and architecture-independent fashion. Furthermore, to resolve the ubiquitous problem of coexisting attractors in nonlinear energy harvesters, we propose a novel robust and adaptive sliding mode controller for active harvesters to move the harvester to any desired attractor by a short entrainment on the desired attractor. The proposed controller is robust to disturbances and unmodeled dynamics and adaptive to the system parameters.

Frequency Analysis of Vibration Energy Harvesting Systems aims to present unique frequency response methods for analyzing and improving vibration energy harvesting systems. Vibration energy is usually converted into heat energy, which is transferred to and wasted in the environment. If this vibration energy can be converted into useful electric energy, both the performance and energy efficiency of machines, vehicles, and structures will be improved, and new opportunities will open up for powering electronic devices. To make use of ambient vibration energy, an effective analysis and design method is established and developed in this book. The book covers a wide range of frequency response analysis methods and includes details of a variety of real-life applications. MATLAB programming is introduced in the first two chapters and used in selected methods throughout the book. Using the methods studied, readers will learn how to analyze and optimize the efficiency of vibration energy systems. This book will be ideal for postgraduate students and researchers in mechanical and energy engineering. - Covers a variety of frequency response analysis methods, including Fourier and Laplace transform, transfer function, integration and state space for piezoelectric and electromagnetic vibration energy harvesting analysis - Provides coverage of new and traditional methods of analyzing and optimizing the power and efficiency of vibration energy harvesting systems, with MATLAB exercises provided throughout - Demonstrates a wide range of real-life applications, such as ocean wave energy conversion, vehicle suspension vibration energy harvesting, and more

This research also advances the understanding of how magnetic force interactions in vibration energy harvesting systems may convert impulsive environmental energies into DC power, and closes additional knowledge gaps on the effective integration of such system characteristics. A model is constructed of a multi degree-of-freedom energy harvesting systems and rectification circuitry that converts impulsive inputs into rectified voltage. By studying the roles of the magnetic coupling and dynamic response, the advantages of asymmetries are revealed and quantified with respect to conventional nonlinear energy harvesting structures and symmetric system compositions. All together, the results of this research may be used to advance continued efforts that investigate the interaction between structural and electrical nonlinearities of energy harvesting systems operated in practical, complex excitation environments. The practical knowledge created from this research may also guide the transfer of the fundamental design and dynamics principles studied here into concepts for future energy harvesting technologies.

Electromagnetic vibration transducers are seen as an effective way of harvesting ambient energy for the supply of sensor monitoring systems. Different electromagnetic coupling architectures have been employed but no comprehensive comparison with respect to their output performance has been carried out up to now. Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvesting Devices introduces an optimization approach which is applied to determine optimal dimensions of the components (magnet, coil and back iron). Eight different commonly applied coupling architectures are investigated. The results show that correct dimensions are of great significance for maximizing the efficiency of the energy conversion. A comparison yields the architectures with the best output performance capability which should be preferably employed in applications. A prototype development is used to demonstrate how the optimization calculations can be integrated into the design–flow. Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvesting Devices targets the designer of electromagnetic vibration transducers who wishes to have a greater in-depth understanding for maximizing the output performance.

This study investigates energy harvesting characteristics from a spinning device that consists of a proof mass that is supported by two orthogonal elastic structures with the piezoelectric material. Deformation in the piezoelectric structures due to vibration of the proof mass generates voltages to power electrical loads. The governing equations for this electromechanically coupled device are derived using Newtonian mechanics and Kirchhoff's voltage law. The case where the device rotates at a constant speed and is subjected to sinusoidal base excitation is examined in detail. The energy harvesting behavior is investigated for devices with identical piezoelectric support structures (called tuned devices). Closed-form expressions are derived for the steady state response and power harvested. For nonzero rotation speeds, these devices have multifrequency dynamic response and power harvested due to the combined vibration and rotation of the host system. The average power harvested for one oscillation cycle is calculated for a wide range of operating conditions to quantify the devices' performance. Resonances do not occur for cases when the base excitation frequency is fixed and the rotation speed varies. For cases of fixed rotation speed and varying base excitation frequency, however, resonances do occur. The number and location of these resonances depend on the electrical circuit resistances and rotation speed. Resonances do not occur at speeds or frequencies predicted by resonance diagrams, which are commonly used in the study of rotating system vibration. These devices have broadband speed energy harvesting ability. They perform equally well at high and low speeds; high speeds are not necessary for their optimal performance. The impact of the chosen damping model on energy harvesting characteristics for tuned devices is investigated. Two common damping models are considered: viscous damping and structural (hysteretic) damping. Closed-form expressions for steady state dynamic response and power harvested are derived for models with viscous and structural damping. The average power harvested using the model with structural damping behaves similarly at high speeds and low speeds, and at high resistances and low resistances. For the viscous damping model, however, the average power harvested is meaningfully different at high speeds compared to low speeds, and at high resistances compared to low resistances. The characteristics of devices with nonidentical piezoelectric support structures (called mistuned devices) are investigated numerically. Similar to spinning tuned devices, mistuned devices have multifrequency dynamic response and power harvested. In contrast to tuned devices, high amplitude average power harvested occurs near speeds and base excitation frequencies predicted by resonance diagram.

Energy harvesting has drawn significant interest for its potential to power autonomous low-power applications. Vibration energy harvesting is particularly well suited to industrial condition sensing, environmental monitoring and household environments where low-level vibrations are commonly found. While significant progress has been made in making vibration harvesters more efficient, most designs are still based on a single constant vibration frequency. However, most vibration sources do not have a constant frequency nor a single harmonic. Therefore, the inability to deal with non-ideal vibration sources has become a major technological obstacle for vibration energy harvesters to be widely applicable. To advance the state of vibration energy harvesting, this thesis presents a design methodology that is capable of dealing with two major non-ideal vibration characteristics: single harmonic frequency shifting and multi-frequency/broadband excitation. This methodology includes a broad-band impedance matching theory and a power electronics architecture to implement that theory. The generalized impedance matching theory extends the well known single frequency impedance matching model to a multi-frequency impedance matching model. By connecting LC tank circuits to the harvester output, additional resonant frequencies are created thereby enabling the energy harvesting system to effectively harvest energy from multi-harmonic vibration sources. However, the required inductors in the LC tank circuits are often too large (>10 H) to be implemented with discrete components. The power electronics proposed here addresses this issue by synthesizing the tank circuits with a power factor correction (PFC) circuit. This circuit mainly consists of an H-bridge, which contains four FETs, and a control loop that turns the FETs on and off at the right time such that the load voltage and current display the characteristics of the multiple tank circuits. By using this proposed power electronics, we demonstrate dual-frequency energy harvesting from a single mechanically resonant harvester. Simulation and experimental results match well and demonstrate that the proposed power electronics is capable of implementing higher order multi-resonant energy harvesting systems. In conclusion, this thesis presents both a theoretical foundation and a power electronics architecture that enables simultaneous effective multi-frequency energy harvesting with a single mechanically resonant harvester. The tunability of the power electronics also provides the possibility of dynamic real-time tuning which is useful to track non-stationary vibration sources.

The transformation of vibrations into electric energy through the use of piezoelectric devices is an exciting and rapidly developing area of research with a widening range of applications constantly materialising. With Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, world-leading researchers provide a timely and comprehensive coverage of the electromechanical modelling and applications of piezoelectric energy harvesters. They present principal modelling approaches, synthesizing fundamental material related to mechanical, aerospace, civil, electrical and materials engineering disciplines for vibration-based energy harvesting using piezoelectric transduction. Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting provides the first comprehensive treatment of distributed-parameter electromechanical modelling for piezoelectric energy harvesting with extensive case studies including experimental validations, and is the first book to address modelling of various forms of excitation in piezoelectric energy harvesting, ranging from airflow excitation to moving loads, thus ensuring its relevance to engineers in fields as disparate as aerospace engineering and civil engineering. Coverage includes: Analytical and approximate analytical distributed-parameter electromechanical models with illustrative theoretical case studies as well as extensive experimental validations Several problems of piezoelectric energy harvesting ranging from simple harmonic excitation to random vibrations Details of introducing and modelling piezoelectric coupling for various problems Modelling and exploiting nonlinear dynamics for performance enhancement, supported with experimental verifications Applications ranging from moving load excitation of slender bridges to airflow excitation of aeroelastic sections A review of standard nonlinear energy harvesting circuits with modelling aspects.

Vibration control is aimed to suppress or eliminate unwanted vibration to ensure proper operation of machines. On the other hand, energy harvesting intends to scavenge energy from ambient vibrations to power electronical devices such as wireless sensors. It is much desired to achieve simultaneous vibration control and energy harvesting. A great amount of effort has been focused on the use of a linear vibration absorber for this purpose. The shortcoming of such an approach is that its effectiveness is limited to a narrow bandwidth of frequency. The goal of this research is to develop a device in order to achieve simultaneous vibration suppression and energy harvesting in a broad frequency band. Instead of using a linear vibration absorber, a nonlinear energy sink (NES) is considered. Since it is very challenging to realize a true NES as it requires a zero linear stiffness, this study focus on developing a variant NES that possesses a low linear stiffness but high nonlinear stiffness. Three designs and their corresponding apparatus are introduced. A base excitation is conducted to determine the spring restoring force in order to character the stiffness of each design. The apparatus that best emulates the NES is chosen. A stiff primary system and a flexible primary system are also developed by changing the primary spring's stiffness. The behaviors of the chosen variant NES are further investigated in two combined system: weakly coupled one (a stiff primary system plus the variant NES) and the strongly coupled one (a flexible primary system plus the variant NES). The transient responses of the two combined systems are investigated numerically and experimentally. The steady state responses of the two combined systems to a harmonic base excitation are investigated in numerically and experimentally. The results from both the weakly coupled and the strongly coupled systems show some typical features of the NES: 1:1 resonance, targeted energy transfer (TET), initial energy or excitation level dependence, jumping phenomena, and strongly modulated response (SMR), etc.

Vibration energy harvesters work effectively only when the operating conditions match with the available vibration source. Typical resonating MEMS structures cannot be used with low-frequency, low-amplitude and unpredictable nature of ambient vibrations. Bi-stable nonlinear oscillator based energy harvesters are developed for lowering the operating frequency while widening the bandwidth, and are realized at MEMS scale for the first time. This design concept does not rely on the resonance of the MEMS structure but operates with the large snapping motion of the beam at very low frequencies when proper conditions are provided to overcome the energy barrier between the two energy wells of the structure. A fully functional piezoelectric MEMS energy harvester is designed, monolithically fabricated and tested. An electromechanical lumped parameter model is developed to analyze the nonlinear dynamics and to guide the design of the multi-layer buckled beam structure. Residual stress induced buckling is achieved through the progressive control of the deposition along the fabrication steps. Static surface profile of the released device shows bi-stable buckling of 200 [mu]m which matches very well with the design. Dynamic testing demonstrates the energy harvester operates with 35% bandwidth under 70Hz at 0.5g, operating conditions that have not been met before by MEMS vibration energy harvesters.