Research on scavenging energy from structural vibration using Electromagnetic (EM) energy harvester is proliferating. The present study investigates the dual use of EM energy harvesters for supplemental energy dissipation to protect seismically isolated structures during ground motion excitations. To understand the underlying dynamics, this study examines the seismic response of a structure with hysteretic characteristics connected to an EM energy harvester with Standard Energy Harvesting Circuit (SEHC) topology through dimensional analysis. The electromechanical coupling as well as the electronic circuit topology introduce a high degree of nonlinearity in the mechanical behavior of the coupled structure-harvester system. This study highlights the discontinuous (or non-smooth) response...[ Read more ]

Research on scavenging energy from structural vibration using Electromagnetic (EM) energy harvester is proliferating. The present study investigates the dual use of EM energy harvesters for supplemental energy dissipation to protect seismically isolated structures during ground motion excitations. To understand the underlying dynamics, this study examines the seismic response of a structure with hysteretic characteristics connected to an EM energy harvester with Standard Energy Harvesting Circuit (SEHC) topology through dimensional analysis. The electromechanical coupling as well as the electronic circuit topology introduce a high degree of nonlinearity in the mechanical behavior of the coupled structure-harvester system. This study highlights the discontinuous (or non-smooth) response of the EM harvester, which characterized by the existence of inactive zones due to the diodes forward voltage drop of the AC-DC converter. The dimensional analysis reduces drastically the number of variables that govern the response of the examined nonlinear system to a minimum of five independent dimensionless terms when the structure is flexible and the EM harvester is large scale. A new dimensionless term is proposed to characterize the degree of electromechanical coupling between the structural system and the harvester system. Overall, the results unveil that the EM energy harvester is a promising alternative for mitigating the seismic response of the structure, while simultaneously scavenging energy from seismically induced vibration. The harvested energy is sufficient to be an emergency source for the public after a devastating earthquake.