Ultra-wideband piezoelectric energy harvester based on Stockbridge damper and its application in smart grid

Abstract Transmission lines are often located in the field, and the long-term effective power supply for the online monitoring devices is an urgent problem for smart grid. To overcome this challenge, we propose a wide-band piezoelectric vibration energy harvester inspired by the Stockbridge damper in transmission lines system. The energy harvester has two subsystems, both of which are designed based on the 1:2 internal resonance principle. Thus, the harvester can exhibit up to four resonant frequencies. The geometric nonlinearity is introduced into the governing equations, and the coupled electrical circuit equation of this system is derived from the Gauss law. Theoretical simulations and experimental measurements show that the internal resonance can achieve a wider operating bandwidth. Based on the actual transmission line type and the measured wind speed data, the performance of energy harvester is analyzed. It demonstrates that the harvester can suppress the vortex-induced vibration of the transmission line within the wind velocity range of 1–4 m/s. The bandwidth of the internal resonance region can be up to 12.05  Hz. At the mean time, the harvest power for online monitoring devices could reach to 12.89  mW. The external noise is simulated by Gaussian white noise. The signal-to-noise ratio is introduced to consider the effect of the noise on the performance of the energy harvester. The results turn out that the harvester exhibits good robustness when the ratio is above 3 dB.