Time Modulation to Manage and Increase the Power Harvested From External Vibrations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that time modulation in a mechanical resonator can significantly enhance power harvesting from ambient vibrations, achieving over tenfold increase and exhibiting high frequency selectivity due to exceptional points.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using time modulation in a resonator to substantially improve power harvesting efficiency and reveals the role of exceptional points in spectral power features.

Findings

Over 10 times increase in harvested power with time modulation.

Presence of narrow spectral peaks and dips due to exceptional points.

High frequency selectivity of power absorption related to EPDs.

Abstract

We investigate how a single resonator with a time-modulated component extracts power from an external ambient source. However, the collected power is largely dependent on the precise choice of the modulation signal frequency. We focus on the power absorbed from external vibration using a one degree-of-freedom mechanical resonator where the damper has a time-varying component. We show that time modulation can make a significant difference in the amount of harvested power, leading to more than 10 times enhancement with respect to an analogous system without time modulation. We also find that a narrow band pair of peak and dip in the spectrum of the absorbed power occurs because of the presence of an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD). In this narrow frequency range, the delay between the damper modulating signal and the external vibrating signal largely affects the collected power. The high frequency-selectivity of EPD-induced power management could potentially be used in sensing and spectrometer applications.