Experimental verification of an inertial mass electromagnetic transducer with mechanical motion rectifier

Abstract

Various kinds of devices employing inerter technologies, which can produce an amplified inertial force proportional to the relative acceleration of both ends, have been proposed for the purposes of structural control and energy harvesting. In these devices, generally, a viscous damping element to absorb vibration energy is employed along with the inerter. In the conventional inerter mechanism, however, the velocity of the inerter decays to zero when the direction of vibration changes, resulting in a reduction in the energy absorption capability of the viscous damping element. To address this issue, inerter-integrated devices that use a mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) to constrain the behavior of the inerter in one direction have been proposed in the field of vibration energy harvesting. In this research, a prototype of an inertial mass electromagnetic transducer with MMR is fabricated. The inertial mass electromagnetic transducer has the same configuration as an inertial mass damper (IMD) and consists of an inerter and a motor instead of a viscous damper. Sinusoidal waves are input to the prototype using an actuator, and the behaviors of the proposed mechanism under various conditions are examined. The obtained results show that the prototype behaves as expected and can absorb vibration energy efficiently.