Energy Harvesting By Optimized Piezo Transduction Mechanism

TL;DR

This paper presents an optimized piezo transduction mechanism for harvesting electrical energy from ambient mechanical noise, demonstrating a standalone module capable of converting vibrations into stored electrical energy.

Contribution

The work introduces a novel design and implementation of a piezo-based energy harvesting module optimized for ambient noise conversion.

Findings

Successful energy harvesting from ambient vibrations

Electrical energy stored in a capacitor

Performance characterized using NI-PXI and LabVIEW

Abstract

We report generation of electrical energy from nonlinear mechanical noises available in the ambient environment using optimized piezo transduction mechanisms. Obtaining energy from an ambient vibration has been attractive for remotely installed standalone microsystems and devices. The mechanical noises in the ambient environment can be converted to electrical energy by a piezo strip based on the principle of piezoelectric effect. In this work, we have designed and developed a standalone energy harvesting module based on piezo transduction mechanisms. Using this designed module we harvested noise energy and stored electrical energy in a capacitor. Using NI-PXI workstation with a LabVIEW programming, the output voltage of the piezo strip and voltage of the capacitor were measured and monitored. In this paper we discuss about the design, development, implementation, performance and characteristics of the energy harvesting module.