An eddy current-induced magnetic plucking for piezoelectric energy harvesting

Frequency up-conversion is a very efficient method of energy harvesting in order to overcome low, non-periodic, or altered ambient vibration. In order to perform frequency up-conversion and transference of mechanical energy without contact, an eddy current-induced magnetic drag force is used. In this paper, we present a novel configuration of eddy current-induced magnetic plucking for piezoelectric energy harvesting. Our method consists of two permanent magnets, a piezoelectric beam, and a copper disk piece. We design our harvesting method to achieve loading, sudden release, and free vibration using the actuation of the piezoelectric beam through the magnetic mutual coupling between the magnet and copper disk piece. We present the principle of magnetic drag force-generation, characterize the energy harvesting performance of our harvesting method, and demonstrate our harvesting method's capability of frequency up-conversion and transference of mechanical energy without contact under low, non-periodic, or altered ambient vibration. To that end, we describe the calculation of magnetic drag force with various geometric dimensions and material properties, model of the piezoelectric cantilever beam, comparison between estimation response and measured experiment response, and the measured voltage and power responses.