Investigation of the magneto-mechanical coupling in a magnetoelectric vibration energy converter

Magnetoelectric (ME) transducers have recently been used in vibration energy harvesting. The magneto-mechanical coupling between the magnetic circuit and the magnetostrictive layers can highly affect the output power of the converter. In this paper, a new vibration energy harvester has been designed and fabricated, which consists of a magnetic spring, two magnetoelectric transducers and a magnetic circuit. The magneto-mechanical coupling has been studied in detail as function of the magnetization direction of the magnets in order to ensure the transmission of higher stress to the magnetostrictive layer.