Development of a Nonlinear Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Alternating Air Load

Abstract

Abstract:The demand for energy-harvesting technology is steadily growing in the field of self-powered wireless sensor systems for use in pneumatic systems. The purpose of this research was to study an energy harvester excited by alternating air load in a pneumatic system. The harvester was designed to consist of a power chamber and a compressed chamber, and to the bottom of the power chamber a piezoelectric patch as been affixed. The harvester is excited by the changing pressure, which can be adjusted through changing volume, and the alternating air pressure energy can be harvested through the deformation of the piezoelectric patch. A test system was built and a prototype device was tested under various experimental conditions. The test results show that the energy generation performance of the harvester can be influenced by varying the volume compression parameters, with the output voltage increasing when the flow increases. The maximal output voltage and power are 24.7 V and 1.06 mW, respectively. An effective power of 0.28 mW was measured across the 200 kΩ resistor at a pressure of 200 kPa and a cycle time of 2.5 s with a flow of 150 L/min.

Conventional and Advanced Exergy Analyses of Industrial Pneumatic Systems

“…Rufer [11] developed a new electrically driven gas booster to replace traditional air-driven gas boosters, thereby increasing the energy efficiency of gas boosters for hydrogen storage and refueling stations. Besides, there is significant progress in other directions for promoting the energy efficiency of pneumatic systems, such as the near isothermal air compression technology [12,13], expansion energy utilization energy-saving technology [14], piezoelectric energy capture technology for pneumatic system applications [15], and so on. There is no doubt that the research on energy saving of pneumatic technology is constantly developing and becoming more sophisticated.…”