Resumen de Multi-physics optimisation of energy harvesters

Elvio Bonisoli, Nicoló Manca, Maurizio Repetto

• Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an electro-mechanical lumped parameters model used for the simulation of an energy harvester device.

  Design/methodology/approach – The model is taking into account the main features of both mechanical and electromagnetic phenomena keeping the computational burden as low as possible to insert it inside an optimisation loop.

  Findings – The simulation tool is then used to design the main parameters of an energy harvester able to supply a computer mouse by converting mechanical energy provided by the computer user.

  Originality/value – The use of a multi-physics analysis tool inside one optimisation loop is a difficult task that requires the honing of all the modules involved in the performance evaluation. The developed approach has shown to be reliable, efficient and has been a key factor in the development of a new product.