A Hybrid Structure of Piezoelectric Fibers and Soft Materials as a Smart Floatable Open-Water Wave Energy Converter.

Sina Baghbani Kordmahale,Jitae Do,Kuang-An Chang,Jun Kameoka

doi:10.3390/mi12101269

Abstract

An open-water wave energy converter (OWEC) made of a new soft platform has been developed by combining piezoelectric macro-fiber composites (MFCs) and a low-cost elastomer. In the past decades, numerous types of water wave energy conversion platform have been developed and investigated, from buoys to overtopping devices. These harvesters mainly use electromagnetic-based generators, and they have faced challenges such as their enormous size, high deployment and maintenance costs, and negative effects on the environment. These problems hinder their practicality and competitiveness. In this paper, a soft open-water wave energy converter is introduced which integrates piezoelectric MFCs and bubble wrap into an elastomer sheet. The performance of the OWEC was investigated in a wave flume as a floatable structure. The maximum 29.7 µW energy harvested from the small OWEC represents a promising energy conversion performance at low frequencies (<2 Hz). The elastomer was able to protect the MFCs and internal electrical connections without any degradation during the experiment. In addition, the OWEC is a foldable structure, which can reduce the deployment costs in real-world applications. The combination of no maintenance, low fabrication cost, low deployment cost, and moderate energy harvesting capability may advance the OWEC platform to its real-world applications.

Highlights

Renewable energy is a highly demanded instrument for economic and social growth, supply infrastructures in remote areas, and climate-change mitigation [1,2,3]
A flexible floating structure made from biofriendly soft materials and containing flexible piezoelectric transducers is a good option to act as an open-water wave energy converter (OWEC) with minimum negative environmental effects, and with an efficient and cost-effective design
The output voltage voltage and power from macro-fiber composites (MFCs) combined in parallel are proportionaland to their ben power from MFCsangle, combined parallel are proportional to their bending angle, speed, speed,inand acceleration

Summary

Introduction

Renewable energy is a highly demanded instrument for economic and social growth, supply infrastructures in remote areas, and climate-change mitigation [1,2,3]. The main attractions of renewable energy sources are that they harvest energy from nature with fewer environmental impacts and have positive effects on the generating countries’ GDPs [6,7]. Using solar energy to power remote mines and oil extraction facilities, or to provide electricity for remote sensing are two examples of the use of renewable energy in the modern era. These are examples where renewable energy is provided for applications located far from a power distribution network, which can reduce the negative environmental effects [5,8,9,10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion