Analysis of Pendulum-Based Nonlinear Energy Sink for Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Passive method is one of the best-suited methods for vibration reduction of the primary structure. Energy harvesting converts vibration energy into useful electrical energy which can be used to power up sensors used for monitoring. Nonlinear energy sinks (NES) are analyzed to passively reduce vibration of the structure as well as energy harvesting simultaneously in this article. Current work considers the applicability of common pendulum as the NES for mitigation linear primary structure and electromagnetic energy conversion. It is observed that the pendulum NES can overcome one of the main limitations of conventional tuned mass damper (TMD) designs, as it has the capability to mitigate primary structure excitation and harvest electrical energy over a wide range. This is because the pendulum has the capability to operate both in linear and nonlinear zones that can be utilized into a resonance of the primary oscillator. For small input excitation, the pendulum acts as a conventional tuned mass damper. However, for larger energy input, the pendulum acts in the nonlinear zone as NES to reduce primary mass vibration. Thus, a pendulum can dissipate energies in a relatively broad spectrum. This article presents a numerical analysis of pendulum NES for control and energy harvesting.