Power Generation Using Piezoelectric Material
The dependency on electricity is a major factor in modern times. This demand has created ease in our l life?s, but this mass consumption of electricity is alarming. Today almost 29 countries source 90% of their energy requirement through fossil fuel, this consumption however necessary it may be is b
2025-06-28 16:34:33 - Adil Khan
Power Generation Using Piezoelectric Material
Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject SummaryThe dependency on electricity is a major factor in modern times. This demand has created ease in our l life’s, but this mass consumption of electricity is alarming. Today almost 29 countries source 90% of their energy requirement through fossil fuel, this consumption however necessary it may be is both hazardous for the surrounding and the resources are decreasing with time. In the field of science much research is taking place to decrease the dependency from these convention resources to renewable resources as they are found less hazardous and can decrease the consumption and dependence upon these conventional resources as well.
Piezoelectric effect can also be listed as the solution for the problems mentioned before. Vibration are fount in abundance in our surrounding to project these vibrations in generating energy for our everyday use is the prime motive of the project. This concept can be interpreted as using the effect of mechanical energy to generate sustainable electrical energy.
The scope of using piezo electricity for electric load is restricted to small loads because the output power ranges from nanowatts-milliwatts. They can still be applied in order to contribute towards decreasing consumption small loads such as led lights, energy saver lamps etc. can effectively be transferred to this technology.
In this project we will generate its output based on the vibrations experienced by the sensor. Energy generated from the piezoelectric material can not be directly utilized it needs to be stored first hence the vibration that out observed by the sensor our transmitted as non-uniform voltage signal these signal go under the process of power conditioning and then they out stored as DC voltage in a battery. The inverter will then utilize it as required.
The basic objective of this system is to achieve the storage of charge in the battery where as the charge will be generated using ambient vibration that surround us and piezoelectric sensor. The process involves the working of full bridge rectifier, boost converter and charge controller device. Each of these unit carry out distinct operations which will be discussed in detail.
Rectifier:
The voltage that is generated from the ambient vibration in our surrounding is dependent upon than vibration amplitude represented as voltage and resonant frequency. The AC electrical energy derived from these vibrations cannot be utilized by loads directly, it needs to be rectified to DC first. This operation is performed using a full bridge rectifier for which diodes are popular choice considering the voltage levels.
Boost Converter:
Lower power levels are major concern in adaption of piezoelectricity at mainstream levels. This can however be compensated by using energy harvesting system which will eventually enhance the power level and provide a regulated DC voltage as the output of this system. This objective is achieved using DC-DC converter or in this case boost converter. “It is DC-DC power converter which steps up voltage while stepping down current to certain DC value”. The addition of the boost converter will facilitate towards a more efficient energy harvesting system for piezoelectricity.
Project Implementation MethodSimulation :
the piezoelectric harvester has been modeled as a second order mass-spring-damper system. This done to translate the physical nature of the transducer when vibrations are observed and its conservation in the form of electrical energy.
Then there is an ideal motion sensor that observes the disturbance between two nodes and transmits a control signal containing the velocity and position. As this simulation is carried out in two different domains a converter is used which will convert the physical signal to Simulink output signal. To subject the force on the transducer model that is being used in the simulation an ideal force is used which is connected to the transducer model directly. It will read the input physical signal and based on that signal will send data to the transducer which will then generate a voltage signal.
This voltage signal will now be subjected to the system where power conditioning or energy harvesting takes place and the value of charge that is being provided to the battery will be visible, through making use of different measurement model in MATLAB and thus a wave form is observed at the end.
Hardware Specifications:
.Piezo Sensor: Piezo sensor can be arranged in either parallel connection or series connection. The behavior of piezo sensor is similar, parallel connection improves current and series connection improves voltage. We mounted these sensors on a board and layered out a series connection. Only hurdle it might face is that if sensor is isolating a faulty sensor from the connection, because a faulty connection in series will make the output zero altogether. Parallel connection provides with a small voltage level which was not sufficient for our project but is a solution for the fault that may occur in series configuration
Charging Circuit:
The charging or power conditioning circuit is composed of a rectifying circuit and a boost converter. Rectifying circuit is basic a diode bridge rectifier with a resistor of 100 ohm and capacitance of 2.2 micro farad connected parallel to its output terminal. The boost converter is present so that a regulated supply of voltage is maintained for the battery to charge. It will only increase the DC voltage level up to required point that is set by moving the potentiometer, its range varies to 20V DC. We required around 13.5 volts approximately to charge the battery, hence we set 13.72 on the potentiometer.
Oscillator unit:
The oscillator unit is responsible for generating frequency component of the alternating current. It will generate a reference signal to which the switching circuit will trigger switching and generate positive and negative cycles of the sine wave. It can be regarded as the reference signal.
Many techniques can be adopted to design an oscillator unit such using microprocessor (PWM) or combination of electronic to generate a pulse width modulated signal.
Footstep power generation system have many applications, but some of them are given below:
? Mobile Charging
? Street Lighting ? Bus station lighting
? Emergency power failure stations
? Colleges.
? Schools.
? Cinema theaters.
? Shopping complex
Technical Details of Final DeliverableDuring this project we were required to get convincing results that this method can be acquired to charge 12 volts battery, that stored charge may be utilized however the user may suffice be it AC load or DC load. While reviewing the literature of the project we found out that this technique can be applied in order to charge 12 volts battery in a time frame of 80 minutes. We made a similar sensor board, piezo sensor connected in a series connection and mounted on a board. The idea mounting sensors on a board is because maximum vibrations are witnessed on the surface of the board.
To conclude that the sensor worked efficiently and a change in voltage is observed when pressure or stress is applied, a MATLAB code was written, and Arduino Uno was used. The program would change the value of the analog signal that was received by the Arduino the results came positive.
As explained earlier the voltage signal received as a result of the vibration needs to go through a power conditioning circuit first before it is to be stored in the battery efficiently. We had to record the voltage received at each end of this power condition circuit separately. By applying source while stepping on the sensor we observed rapid changes in the values that ranged from 5-16 volts. The power conditioning circuit consists a capacitor and boost converter the capacitor was not charged at first therefore it required time to store charge. The boost converter would show a 13.63-13.72 volts as it would receive voltage of 12 or more volts at its input. The only difficulty faced in this entire process was to keep the vibrations under a range that would provide voltage ranging 15-16 volts to the battery at a continuous rate.
To overcome this effect many people have adapted a shaker and cantilever beam to conclude with convincible evidence that piezoelectricity can be termed as sustainable energy.
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 34460 | |||
| piezoElecteic Sensor | Equipment | 420 | 45 | 18900 |
| Boost convertor | Equipment | 1 | 6000 | 6000 |
| Capacitots | Equipment | 100 | 2 | 200 |
| Bridge Rectifier | Equipment | 200 | 20 | 4000 |
| Diode | Equipment | 100 | 2 | 200 |
| springs | Equipment | 50 | 20 | 1000 |
| nuts ans screws | Equipment | 50 | 15 | 750 |
| Glue Gun | Equipment | 1 | 660 | 660 |
| PCB board | Equipment | 5 | 250 | 1250 |
| Drill Machine | Equipment | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |