Industrialization of a kinematic vibration energy harvester for smart bearing with piezoelectric/magnetic coupling

An innovative configuration to equip monitoring and sensor devices with a local power supply is currently investigated in the literature, by resorting to some kinematic energy harvester, more than to pure vibration energy conversion. A kinematic rotational scavenger resorts to relative rotation between machine components, to exploit a dynamic excitation induced upon a flexible smart structure. Particularly, some benefits of the electromechanical plucking effect provided by interaction between permanent magnets were explored, when they are applied to flexible structures, with surface bonded piezoelectric layers. In case of smart bearing for industrial application, a prototype of cantilever piezoelectric beam, clamped to fixed ring, and excited at its tip by interaction between a permanent magnet locally bonded and another one, connected to the rotating ring, is currently developed. After a preliminary evaluation of system performance, the industrialization of this hybrid piezoelectric/magnetic energy scavenger needs to explore some key issues of design.