A piezoelectric energy harvester for multi-type environments

Abstract

Researchers have been studying the harvesting and utilization of mechanical vibration energy in the environment in recent years. Wind energy and water current energy are common energy in natural environment, the composite energy harvesting device that can harvest both wind energy and water energy is rarely reported. In this work, a piezoelectric energy harvester for multi-type environments is proposed, which can be installed in corresponding environments to harvest the wind energy, the water wave energy and the water current energy. In addition, the proposed energy harvesting device can adjust the attitude according to the direction of environmental energy. The energy harvesting principle is discussed and the performance of the device under different working conditions is tested by experiment. In the wind energy experiment, the maximum output power is 21.19 mW at a sustained wind speed of 8 m/s, and in the water energy experiment, the maximum output power is 2.01 mW at a medium infiltration depth and a flow velocity of 0.55 m/s. Finally, functional experiments are carried out to verify that the energy harvesting device proposed in this work can be put into practical use, and has a huge application prospect in long-term energy supply for outdoor microelectronic devices.