Energy harvesting from coherent resonance of horizontal vibration of beam excited by vertical base motion

This letter investigates the energy harvesting from the horizontal coherent resonance of a vertical cantilever beam subjected to the vertical base excitation. The potential energy of the system has two symmetric potential wells. So, under vertical excitation, the system can jump between two potential wells, which will lead to the large vibration in horizontal direction. Two piezoelectric patches are pasted to harvest the energy. From experiment, it is found that the vertical excitation can make the beam turn to be bistable. The system can transform vertical vibration into horizontal vibration of low frequency when excited by harmonic motion. The horizontal coherence resonance can be observed when excited by a vertical white noise. The corresponding output voltages of piezoelectric films reach high values. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.