Analytical and Numerical Investigations on a Bistable System for Energy Harvesting Application

This paper aims at an analytical and numerical analysis of a bistable Duffing equation. One purpose lies in the identification of suitable oscillations for a robust energy harvesting device, i.e. a system that is well suited for a broad bandwidth excitation. A map is constructed illustrating the dependence of the harvested energy on the predominant oscillation type. It shows that inter-well oscillations lead to the highest energy harvest compared to intra-well and cross-well oscillations under harmonic excitation. The determination of the critical excitation parameters necessary to maintain inter-well oscillations is essential for the design of bistable energy harvesters. Therefore, investigations are made to attain an analytical description of the inter-well oscillation region. On this basis, a design criterion is derived for nonlinear energy harvesters.Copyright © 2014 by ASME