Magnetostrictive Vibration Energy Harvester (MAVEN)

Impact Technologies, in cooperation with Dr. Mohammed Daqaq from Clemson University, propose to develop a magnetostrictive materials based device for harvesting energy from mechanical vibration. The energy harvesting device will harness power from ship-hull vibrations in order to power sensing devices. This technology will be a key enabler for improved structural and machinery health management. Key innovations of the approach include creation of a device using magnetic levitation to soften natural frequencies inside the harvester to allow the harvester to be tuned to very low excitation frequencies. The key tasks of Phase I include: characterizing the vibration spectrum of the application (initially an Arleigh Burke class destroyer); deriving analytical models for quantifying the device’s output power for various vibration spectral profiles; designing, modeling, and creating energy harvesting prototypes; and demonstrating the harvesting system in a laboratory environment.