The use of bistable laminates is a potential approach to realize broadband piezoelectric based energy harvesting systems. In this paper the dynamic response of a piezoelectric material attached to a bistable laminate plate is examined based on the experimental generated voltage time series. The system was subjected to harmonic excitations and exhibited single-well and snap-through vibrations of both periodic and chaotic character. To identify the dynamics of the system response we examined the frequency spectrum, bifurcation diagrams, phase portraits, and the 0–1 test.

We examined the Duffing system with a fractional damping term. Calculating the basins of attraction, we demonstrate a broad spectrum of non-linear behaviour connected with sensitivity to the initial conditions and chaos. To quantify dynamical response of the system, we propose the statistical 0-1 test as well as the maximal Lyapunov exponent; the application of the latter encounter a few difficulties because of the memory effect due to the fractional derivative. The results are confirmed by bifurcation diagrams, phase portraits, and Poincaré sections.

We have applied the Melnikov criterion to examine a global homoclinic bifurcation and transition to chaos in a case of the Duffing system with nonlinear fractional damping and external excitation. Using perturbation methods we have found a critical forcing amplitude above which the system may behave chaotically. The results have been verified by numerical simulations using standard nonlinear tools as Poincare maps and a Lyapunov exponent. Above the critical Melnikov amplitude μ_c, which a sufficient condition of a global homoclinic bifurcation, we have observed the region with a transient chaotic motion.

We examine multiple responses of a vibrational energy harvester composed of a vertical beam and a tip mass. The beam is excited horizontally by a harmonic inertial force while mechanical vibrational...