Novel Equivalent Electrical Circuits for Linear and Nonlinear Electromechanically Coupled Systems

In the last years, researchers have presented concentrated and distributed parameter models of electromechanically coupled systems, leading to appropriate estimation of their electroelastic behavior. Equivalent electrical circuits have also been investigated and provide useful simulation tools to investigate the system behavior as well as to developed new energy harvesting or control circuits. In general, RLC (resistor, inductor and capacitor) circuits represent, respectively, the mass, damping and stiffness of single or multi-degree-of-freedom electromechanically coupled systems. In practice, however, the equivalent electrical representation of high-quality-factor systems demand equivalent circuits with extremely low internal resistance values. Furthermore, the assumption of an ideal transformer cannot be obtained in practice. This work presents a novel equivalent electrical circuit for linear and nonlinear electromechanically coupled systems. The effects of inductance, capacitance and electromechanical coupling are represented through operational-amplifier based sub-circuits of extremely low internal resistance. First, the linear behavior of a mass-spring-damping system is verified. Later, the behavior of a nonlinear electromechanically coupled system is investigated. In both cases, numerical results (Matlab-Simulink simulations) and experimental results (from breadboard implementations) will be verified against experimental results presented in the literature.