Simultaneous vibration isolation and energy harvesting via a new negative stiffness system with inertial amplifier

Abstract

The negative stiffness system provides significant vibration isolation. The conversion of mechanical energy from structural vibrations into electrical energy is an effective method of energy harvesting. In this paper, a new negative stiffness system (NSS) with inertial amplifier for vibration isolation and energy harvesting is established, whose main purpose is to achieve good vibration isolation effect while the system can achieve the purpose of energy harvesting. Inertial amplifiers are used to improve the dynamic effective mass of the system, thereby reducing the natural frequency of the system. Using the multi-scale method, the amplitude-frequency response equation of the system is derived and the amplitude-frequency characteristic curve is plotted. The Lyapunov exponent, the root mean square of the voltage of the piezoelectric system and the basin of attraction are introduced to analyze the energy harvesting performance of the system. Numerical results show that the inertial amplifier improves the vibration isolation capacity of the negative stiffness structure in the low-frequency band. There is a correlation between the basin of attraction, the Lyapunov exponent, and the root mean square of voltage.