Automated electromagnetic generator with self-adaptive structure by coil switching

João V. Vidal, Pedro Rolo, Pedro M.R. Carneiro, Inês Peres, Andrei L. Kholkin and Marco P. Soares dos Santos

Applied Energy, 2022, vol. 325, issue C, No S0306261922010789

Abstract: Self-powered electronic devices have been widely sought after in the last few years demanding efficient harvesting of locally available forms of energy. Electromagnetic generators are suitable contenders for powering both small-scale and large-scale devices due to their widespread availability and customizability. New promising magnet levitation architectures for mechanical vibration energy harvesting offer low production and maintenance costs, as well as a wide array of designs. They also exhibit complex non-linear and hysteretic resonant behaviors. Nonetheless, their performance is typically optimized towards external excitations with very specific characteristics. In this study, we theoretically and experimentally prove the concept of an instrumented self-adaptive levitation generator with on/off coil switching employing an accelerometer, transmission gate switches and a processing system. This adaptable system is able to periodically turn off coils not contributing to the generated electromotive forces for certain frequencies and amplitudes of the input excitations. Taking the power consumption of instrumentation into account, power gains up to ≈ 26% were achieved for harmonic inputs with randomly time changing frequencies and amplitudes. Using a prototype generator with 140.7 cm3, output average powers of up to 1.79 W (i.e., 12.7 kW/m3) were extracted for optimal electrical loads under non-linear resonant conditions. Significant increases in electric power efficiencies were achieved as well. These promising results should pave the way towards intelligent self-adapting energy generators.

Keywords: Energy harvesting; Self-powering; Electromagnetic generator; Magnetic levitation; Adaptive generator; Non-linear resonance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261922010789
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:325:y:2022:i:c:s0306261922010789

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119802

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().