Abstract
A bridge vibration energy harvester has been proposed in this paper using a Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) system, named hereafter tuned mass energy harvester. To harvest and make use of the unused reserve of energy the aforementioned damper system absorbs, an electromagnetic transducer has been applied. To investigate the configuration of the tuned mass energy harvester considering performances of bridge vibration control and energy harvesting, single-mass and dual-mass systems where one or two masses are connected in series with the electromagnetic transducer and spring are proposed. According to the theory of vibrations and electric circuits, it has been clarified that dual-mass systems have several advantages over single-mass systems for power generation and vibration control. It has also been clarified that for effective energy harvesting or vibration control, it is essential to consider the power factor of electromagnetic transducer and electric circuit.
