A Setup for the Performance Characterization and Traceable Efficiency Measurement of Magnetostrictive Harvesters

This paper addresses the assessment of the performance and the efficiency of direct force magnetostrictive harvesters. A suitable test rig is presented, and its characteristics are discussed. Moreover, this paper shows some harvester parameters able to influence the measurement results. The setup measures the electromechanical energy conversion properties of direct force harvesters, with a relative expanded uncertainty in the 10^-3 range for the output power and 6 · 10^-2 for the efficiency. The system has been employed to characterize a novel harvester having a maximum measured efficiency of ~32%.