Eur. Phys. J. B (2016) 89: 229
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2016-70287-y

Regular Article

Analysis of an electrostatic energy harvester with variable area, permittivity and radius

¹ Laboratory of Modelling and Simulation in Engineering, Biomimetics, and Prototypes and TWAS Research Unit, Faculty of Sciences, University of Yaounde I, P.O. Box 812, Yaounde, Cameroon
² Applied Physics Research Group (APHY), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

^a e-mail: pwoafo1@yahoo.fr

Received: 9 May 2016
Received in final form: 1 July 2016
Published online: 24 October 2016

Abstract

This paper reports on an electrostatic vibration energy harvester (e-VEH) system with variable area, variable permittivity, and variable radius. Nonlinear oscillator equations are established for each case, and solved analytically and numerically. The power produced by each configuration of the harvester is presented in terms of resistive load, frequency and external excitation.