Magnetically coupled flextensional transducer for wideband vibration energy harvesting: Design, modeling and experiments

The combination of nonlinear bistable and flextensional mechanisms has the advantages of wide operating frequency and high equivalent piezoelectric constant. In this paper, three magnetically coupled flextensional vibration energy harvesters (MF-VEHs) are designed from three magnetically coupled vibration systems which utilize a magnetic repulsion, two symmetrical magnetic attractions and multi-magnetic repulsions, respectively. The coupled dynamic models are developed to describe the electromechanical transitions. Simulations under harmonic excitation and random excitation are carried out to investigate the performance of the MF-VEHs with different parameters. Experimental validations of the MF-VEHs are performed under different excitation levels. The experimental results verify that the developed mathematical models can be used to accurately characterize the MF-VEHs for various magnetic coupling modes. A comparison of three MF-VEHs is provided and the results illustrate that a reasonable arrangement of multiple magnets can reduce the threshold excitation intensity and increase the harvested energy.