Impact-induced high-energy orbits of nonlinear energy harvesters

This letter presents an impact-induced method for nonlinear energy harvesters to obtain high-energy orbits over a wide frequency range under low excitation levels. Based on the impact principle and conservation of momentum, nonlinear electromechanical equations are derived to describe the system response due to initial impacts. Numerical and experimental results show that nonlinear bistable and tristable harvesters can sustain large-amplitude interwell oscillations over a wide range of frequencies, by achieving high-energy orbits in the beginning induced by an initial impact. The proposed impact-induced method could facilitate to efficient energy harvesting from low level ambient vibrations. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.