Nonlinear dynamics of asymmetric bistable energy harvesters

TL;DR

This study explores how asymmetries affect the nonlinear dynamics of energy harvesters, revealing adverse effects and potential ways to mitigate them through optimal design parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive numerical analysis of asymmetric energy harvesters, highlighting how asymmetries influence system dynamics and proposing methods to enhance performance.

Findings

Asymmetries negatively impact system dynamics.

Optimal sloping angles can mitigate asymmetry effects.

Asymmetric harvesters can outperform symmetric ones with proper tuning.

Abstract

The paper investigates asymmetries effects over a nonlinear vibration energy harvester dynamics. The asymmetric system performance is compared with symmetric ones. Different asymmetry levels on restoring force and gravity action are investigated from a system-sloping angle variation. Bifurcation diagrams and basins of attraction are used to examine the local and global characteristics underlying dynamical systems under different excitation energy. The results show the adverse effects of asymmetries on system dynamics. They also reveal ways to overcome them by canceling asymmetric influence from optimal sloping angle values and improving asymmetric system performance over symmetrical ones. This comprehensive numerical study provides novel valuable insights into asymmetrical energy harvester dynamics, a wide and still less explored topic.