Piezoelectric Nonlinear Energy Sink for Energy Harvesting With Rectifying DC Interface Circuit

In order to improve the performance of vibration energy harvesters over a broad frequency range, this paper proposes a use of piezoelectric nonlinear energy sink (NES) for energy harvesting from ambient vibrations. A standard rectifying direct current (DC) interface circuit is considered to generate DC power from the piezoelectric NES under harmonic excitation. Harmonic balance method is used to obtain the dynamic response and energy harvesting performance of the proposed piezoelectric NES, verified by the equivalent circuit simulation. Analytical and numerical results show that the design, by applying NES, improves the efficiency of energy harvesting without increasing the vibration of the primary structure in a broadband manner. The effects of the electromechanical coupling, excitation level and load resistance on the magnitude and bandwidth of the output DC power are investigated.