Analysis of cantilever characteristics in designing electromagnetic generator

Vibration energy harvesting is one of potential renewable energy that may replace conventional chemical battery as energy source for powering wireless micro-system. One of the vibration energy harvester designs makes use of Faraday´s law of induction which is electromagnetic method. This type micro-generator generally consists of cantilever, magnets and coils. The generator uses two magnets arranged on the top and bottom at the end of cantilever while another end is fixed. The coils are placed beside two sides of the magnets. This paper presents an analysis of the cantilever by varying the physical dimension of the cantilever such as length, thickness and width. The analysis includes the resonant frequency of the cantilever and also the deflection under damping ratio. There is small difference between ANSYS simulation and theoretical calculation, which is about 1.4%. The adjustment of the length of cantilever provides the largest range of tuning frequency among the above mention parameters.