Nonlinearity in Energy Harvesting Systems

This book is a single-source guide to nonlinearity and nonlinear techniques in energy harvesting, with a focus on vibration energy harvesters for micro and nanoscale applications. The authors demonstrate that whereas nonlinearity was avoided as an undesirable phenomenon in early energy harvesters, now it can be used as an essential part of these systems. Readers will benefit from an overview of nonlinear techniques and applications, as well as deeper insight into methods of analysis and modeling of energy harvesters, employing different nonlinearities. The role of nonlinearity due to different aspects of an energy harvester is discussed, including nonlinearity due to mechanical-to-electrical conversion, nonlinearity due to conditioning electronic circuits, nonlinearity due to novel materials (e.g., graphene), etc. Coverage includes tutorial introductions to MEMS and NEMS technology, as well as a wide range of applications, such as nonlinear oscillators and transducers for energy harvesters and electronic conditioning circuits for effective energy processing.

Since 2007, Elena Blokhina has been with the School of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering, University College Dublin, Ireland and is currently a lecturer and the research manager of the Circuits and Systems Research Group. Abdelaili El Aroudi is a professor at the University of Rovira, Finland, in the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering. Eduard Alarcon is a tenured Associate Professor at the Technical University of Catalonia, Spain.