Vibration energy harvesting using Galfenol based transducer

In this paper the novel design of Galfenol based vibration energy harvester is presented. The device uses Galfenol rod diameter 6.35 mm and length 50mm, polycrystalline, production grade, manufactured by FSZM process by ETREMA Product Inc. For experimental study of the harvester, the test rig was developed. It was found by experiment that for given frequency of external excitation there exist optimal values of bias and pre-stress which maximize generated voltage and harvested power. Under optimized operational conditions and external excitations with frequency 50Hz the designed transducer generates about 10 V and harvests about 0,45 W power. Within the running conditions, the Galfenol rod power density was estimated to 340mW/cm3. The obtained results show high practical potential of Galfenol based sensors for vibration-to-electrical energy conversion, structural health monitoring, etc