A Belleville-spring-based electromagnetic energy harvester. (21st August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Castagnetti, Davide
• Is Part Of: Smart materials and structures. Volume 24:Number 9(2015:Sep.)
• Publication Date: 2015-08-21
• Subjects: energy harvesting -- Belleville spring -- large bandwidth -- electromagnetic -- experimental -- piezoelectric -- hybrid converter; Smart materials -- Periodicals; Strucural design -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/24/9/094009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0964-1726

Abstract

Abstract: Energy harvesting from kinetic ambient energy is particularly effective to power autonomous sensors. This work proposes an innovative energy converter based on two counteracting Belleville springs and exploiting their peculiarity, for a height to thickness ratio equal to 1.414, of nearly zero stiffness over a wide deflection range. After analytical and numerical modelling a prototype is developed and experimentally investigated. The sub-optimal geometry of the commercial springs used in the prototype, together with a non-ideal response, makes the operating frequency for the prototype higher than in analytical and numerical predictions. Nevertheless, the harvester exhibits a significantly large bandwidth, together with a high output power, compared to similar solutions in the literature, for all the examined configurations and input excitations.