Development of an Adaptive Piezoelectric Harvesting System for Wireless Remote Power Supply (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Engineering - Power Engineering, , language: English, abstract: Increasing energy consumption in modern electronic systems has allowed energy harvesting materials to grow at a rapid pace. Environmental energy harvesting, in particular vibration based, have developed as a viable technique to supplement battery supplies.

This project develops a sustained operation to power an electric system. Piezoelectric materials allow to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. This can be done through solar, vibrations, heat, strain, etc. The energy can also be stored for later use. It is also varying the voltage and adjust the amplitude piezoelectric harvesting components and storage devices (such as batteries, super capacitors, etc.).

In this project, a low cost, reliable, environmentally friendly and portable solution is developed by using the piezoelectric method. Piezoelectric materials have many applications in real life, such as generating electrical energy from moving objects, trains, bicycles, etc. This technology is used in many applications , like monitoring, robotics, military.

Objectives of this paper are: to understand the how piezoelectric system works; to analyse the piezoelectric design of system & using device data sheets where necessary; to understand the real life applications; to understand the behaviour of the piezoelectric system on load; and to compare the results.