Theoretical Analysis on the Impact of Total Damping Ratio on the Power Output of an Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester

Vibration energy harvesting has emerged as a promising source of sustainable energy to power small electronics. This study investigates the effect of total damping on the power output of an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester. Analytical results show that an increase in the effective mass of the harvester increases the mechanical damping but decreases the electromagnetic damping. The total damping of the harvester displayed an increasing trend with the effective mass when the electromagnetic damping is lower that the mechanical damping but changed into a decreasing trend when the electromagnetic damping becomes larger than the mechanical damping. Findings also suggest that there is an optimum proof mass to beam mass ratio where the harvester would produce maximum power in both cases of where a constant and varying optimum load resistance were considered.