Vibration energy harvesting for aircraft, trains and boats

A vibration energy harvesting approach has been developed to harvest energy from low frequency mechanical vibrations (i.e. < 20 Hz). The energy harvester reported consists of an oscillator created using a spherical permanentmagnet, wear-pad and wire coil arrangement. A magnetic restoring force acts on the spherical magnet, and as the magnet oscillates it steers magnetic field through the transducer thereby producing an oscillating charge that can be harvested. Measured stochastic-like vibrations from three different vehicle types (i.e. jet plane, train, and boat) were reproduced on a vibration shaker. The non-optimised energy harvester's response to the three vibration spectra was examined. The largest output was in response to the train vibrations which produced a peak power of 18.5 mW and a longer term RMS power of 1.28 mW.