Enhanced Energy Harvesting of a Nonlinear Energy Sink by Internal Resonance

Given its essential nonlinearity, nonlinear energy sink (NES) has been extensively studied as a promising vibration energy harvesting device. Internal resonance, which is due to strong energy exchange between modes, also provides a valuable idea for vibration energy harvesting. Combining these two advantages, we put forward a 3:1 internal resonance system, which consists of an NES and a coupled linear oscillator, as an enhanced method for vibration energy harvesting. The multiscale method is applied to derive the relationship between amplitude and frequency response. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Results show that the internal resonance system can remarkably improve the vibration energy harvesting performance. The numerical solutions verify the accuracy of the analytical solutions. The results demonstrate that the internal resonance system with NES for energy harvesting has better output power and bandwidth compared with noninternal resonance system. Overall, the comprehensive design improves the performance of NES for vibration energy harvesting.