Repulsive magnetic levitation-based ocean wave energy harvester with variable resonance: Modeling, simulation and experiment

This paper investigates a magnetic levitation characteristic used in a vibration based energy harvester, called repulsive magnetic scavenger (RMS). The RMS is capable of harvesting ocean wave energy with a unique repelling permanent magnet array, which provides a stronger and more uniform magnetic field, compared to its attracting magnetic counterparts. The levitating magnets are stacked together around a threaded rod so that the same pole is facing each other. Two fixed magnets placed with one at each end of the RMS provides a collocated harvesting and braking mechanism in the face of high amplitude vibrations. Magnets in the levitated magnet stack are separated by pole pieces which are made of metals to intensify the magnetic field strength. The effect of the thickness and the use of different materials with different permeability for pole pieces is also studied to obtain an optimal energy harvesting efficiency. Moreover, the procedure to find the restoring force applied to the levitating magnet stack is demonstrated. Then, the Duffing vibration equation of the harvester is solved and the frequency response function is calculated for various force amplitudes and electrical damping so as to investigate the effect of these parameters on the response of the system. Furthermore, the effect of the maximum displacement of the moving magnet stack on the natural frequency of the device is studied. And finally, Faraday's law is employed to estimate the output voltage and power of the system under the specified input excitation force. Experiments show that the output emf voltage of the manufactured prototype reaches up to 42 V for an excitation force with the frequency of 9 Hz and the maximum amplitude of 3.4 g. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.