Abstract
Terfenol-D, magnetostriction material, is utilized for vibration energy harvesting. A compact power generator has been built and tested for a wide range of vibration frequencies through experiments. It is found that there are certain conditions which are crucial for achieving a satisfactory performance. It also is verified that an appropriate choice of operation conditions combined with design elaboration will lead to a significant level of energy production which is considerably higher than those obtained by conventional piezoelectric materials. In another experiment, the energy harvested is stored and re-used to drive a wireless switch several times. This energy harvester is promising in supplying energy to self-powered devices such as wireless sensing electronics which may be installed at inaccessible locations.
