Vol. 107, Issue 8, August 2009, pp. 119-132

Finite Element Analyses of a Flat Spring for Use in an Electromagnetic Microgenerator

Nibras Awaja, Dinesh Sood, Thurai Vinay

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University,

GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia

E-mail: nibras.awaja@ieee.org

Received: 6 April 2009   /Accepted: 15 August 2009   /Published:  25 August 2009

Abstract: This paper represents a study on design aspects of flat spring, which is the active component of electromagnetic microgenerator, through comprehensive finite element analyses. The electromagnetic microgenerator performs as a transducer that converts ambient vibrational energy to electrical power. A Model of flat spring is developed and used in the finite element analyses study utilizing ANSYS software. The structural analysis has been carried out to analyze different flat spring designs and evaluate the flat spring characteristics to provide an optimum spring model. Maximum static deflection was found to be 13.43 μm is under the gravitational force. Furthermore, free vibration characteristics of the selected spring are presented to determine the resonance frequency. Natural frequency of 18.56 Hz was obtained. The simulation results show that the electromagnetic microgenerator can generate 14.5 nW at an input frequency of 3 kHz.

Keywords: Micro power generator, Micro spring design, Mechanical vibration

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