A two-dimensional broadband vibration energy harvester using magnetoelectric transducer

In this study, a magnetoelectric vibration energy harvester was demonstrated, which aims at addressing the limitations of the existing approaches in single dimensional operation with narrow working bandwidth. A circular cross-section cantilever rod, not a conventional thin cantilever beam, was adopted to extract vibration energy in arbitrary in-plane motion directions. The magnetic interaction not only resulted in a nonlinear motion of the rod with increased frequency bandwidth, but also contributed to a multi-mode motion to exhibit double power peaks. In energy harvesting with in-plane directions, it showed a maximum bandwidth of 4.4 Hz and power of 0.59 mW, with acceleration of 0.6 g (with g = 9.8 ms(-2)). (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.