Probabilistic behavior analysis of a sandwiched buckled beam under Gaussian white noise with energy harvesting perspectives

In this paper, a sandwiched buckled beam with axial compressive force under Gaussian white noise is considered as a piezoelectric energy harvester. A stochastic averaging method is proposed to analytically predict the system's response, the stability and the estimation of system's reliability. By using the generalized harmonic transformation, the Itô differential equations with respect to the mechanical and electrical amplitude are derived through this technique. From these differential equations, we construct the Fokker–Plank–Kolmogorov equation for the electrical and mechanical subsystem where the solution of each equation in the stationary state is a probability density. The mean first passage time (MFPT) is numerically provided in order to study the attractor stability(stable equilibrium point observed in the effective potential) which give rise to the noise-enhanced stability(NES) phenomenon. The mean square response and voltage are obtained for different white noise intensities and others system parameters. The effects of linear damping and noise intensity on the mean square voltage are investigated. We notice that harvested energy can be enhanced by suitable choice of noise intensity and others system parameters. In additional, by combining the random signal with harmonic excitation, the stochastic resonance(SR) phenomenon is observed via the mean residence time(TMR) which give rise to the large amplitude of vibrations and consequently, an optimization of harvested energy. The agreements between the analytical method and those obtained numerically validate the effectiveness of analytical investigations.