Validation of thermodynamic magneto-mechanical finite-element model on cantilever-beam type magnetostrictive energy harvester

This paper presents the validation of a thermodynamic magneto-mechanical model to analyze a galfenol based cantilever beam type energy harvesting device. As compared to some earlier modeling approaches that were tested only on specific harvester geometries, the thermodynamic model has already been validated on rod-type harvesters and is now shown to be suitable for analyzing also beam-type devices. Moreover, the paper discusses the influence of magnetostriction upon resonant frequency. The thermodynamic model is implemented in a 3D finite element solver using COMSOL Multiphysics software. This allows optimizing the device design by tuning the geometric parameters and magnetic bias under available operating conditions (amplitude and frequency of vibrations) easily and efficiently. A unimorph cantilever beam type prototype harvester device consisting of a galfenol beam bonded to an aluminum substrate is constructed for validating the model. Simulated and measured results are compared at base excitation amplitudes of 0.5 to 2 g under varying vibration frequencies. The results show that the maximum induced voltage is obtained at the resonant frequency which decreases slightly with an increase in the vibration amplitude. Furthermore, it is shown that the resonant frequency decreases from 201 Hz to 187 Hz at 1 g base acceleration when the magnetic bias is removed. The comparison of measured and simulated results show that the model can accurately predict the resonant frequency with a relative error of less than 2%, validating the modeling approach. The model can also reasonably determine the open circuit voltage with some discrepancies at large vibration amplitudes.