Investigation of a Nonlinear Vibrational Energy Harvester in the Stochastic Resonance Regime

In this paper the possibility to exploit advantageously the Stochastic Resonance phenomenon in a Nonlinear Energy Harvester to scavenge energy from wide band mechanical vibrations is experimentally demonstrated. The device is demonstrated to be capable of scavenging energy in case of a subthreshold sinusoidal vibration and a wideband noise (limited at 100 Hz) superimposed. The existence of an optimal value of the noise intensity maximizing the switching ratio of the bistable beam, then the performances, is experimentally demonstrated. The harvester is observed to generate power up to about 60 µW and 150 µW in case of a subthreshold sinusoidal input at 1 Hz and 3 Hz with a superimposed noise limited at 100 Hz