Single-degree-of-freedom energy harvesters by stochastic excitation

In this thesis, the performance criteria for the objective comparison of different classes of single-degree-of-freedom oscillators under stochastic excitation are developed. For each family of oscillators, these objective criteria take into account the maximum possible energy harvested for a given response level, which is a quantity that is directly connected to the size of the harvesting configuration. We prove that the derived criteria are invariant with respect to magnitude or temporal rescaling of the input spectrum and they depend only on the relative distribution of energy across different harmonics of the excitation. We then compare three different classes of linear and nonlinear oscillators and using stochastic analysis tools we illustrate that in all cases of excitation spectra (monochromatic, broadband, white-noise) the optimal performance of all designs cannot exceed the performance of the linear design. Subsequently, we study the robustness of this optimal performance to small perturbations of the input spectrum and illustrate the advantages of nonlinear designs relative to linear ones.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Joo, Han Kyul

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Themistoklis P. Sapsis.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92138

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/92138