Theoretical and Experimental Investigations of a Pseudo-Magnetic Levitation System for Energy Harvesting

The paper presents an analytical, numerical and experimental analysis of the special designed system for energy harvesting. The harvester system consists of two identical magnets rigidly mounted to the tube’s end. Between them, a third magnet is free to magnetically levitate (pseudo-levitate) due to the proper magnet polarity. The behaviour of the harvester is significantly complicated by a electromechanical coupling. It causes resonance curves to have a distorted shape and a new solution from which the recovered energy is higher is observed. The Harmonic Balance Method (HBM) is used to approximately describe the response and stability of the mechanical and electrical systems. The analytical results are verified by a numerical path following (continuation) method and experiment test with use of a shaker. The influence of harvester parameters on the system response and energy recovery near a main resonance is studied in detail.