Research Themes: Energy and Climate Change, Acoustics and Signal Processing and Control.

An important issue related to energy harvesting devices is their power density and ensuring that the available kinetic energy is efficiently converted to electrical power. In this project, the power density of an inertial harvester will be increased by designing a hybrid system. More specifically, the linear motion of the proof mass (that is turning a generator through a screw) will be used to simultaneously energise a flux-switching mechanism. The resulting hybrid harvester will be characterised through experiments and finite element analysis. The investigation will concentrate on the steady-state operation with constant input. Furthermore, in order to produce an optimum hybrid system, the coupling between the mechanical, electrical and magnetic components of the system will be modelled. Hence, analytical relationships between key parameters of the three components such as natural frequency, load resistance and magnetic flux will be developed. Different configurations for the linear generator such as four sided and tubular will be considered.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Mohamed M. Torbati, Electromechanical research group, Email: m.m.torbati<στο>soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 8583.