Response of meso-scale energy harvesters coupled with dynamic floor systems

Conversion of ambient vibrations to electrical power (energy scavenging, energy harvesting etc.) is an increasingly popular research area. However, many of these applications are focused at either the micro-(e.g., biosensors, wireless monitoring) or macro-scale (e.g., viscous dampers for buildings). This research focuses on a meso-scale application of energy harvesting of floor vibrations by numerical investigation and experimental validation of dynamic response of coupled linear floor-harvester systems. A refined methodology for numerical modeling of floor vibrations has been developed and validated against experimental tests of a composite steel-framed floor. The dynamic response of the floor is presented as a baseline for modeling of coupled harvester-floor systems. Using this baseline, the dynamic response of the coupled floor system is investigated for a range of design parameters and optimized for a mass/stiffness of 2.00%/5N combination resulting in acceleration exceedance of 0.1 g for 31.7% of the total peaks. The optimization, limitations, and extensions of the numerical model and a modeling protocol is discussed as well as future work.