Harvesting energy from acoustic vibrations of conventional and ultrasonic whistles

Abstract

This paper experimentally investigates the feasibility of harvesting vibration energy from whistles using piezoelectric materials. The end goal of this research is to generate sufficient power from the whistle to power a small radio transmitter to relay a basic signal – for example, a distress call. First, the paper discusses the current literature in energy harvesting from acoustic resonance. Next, the concept of an active whistle is presented. Next, results from energy harvesting experiments conducted on conventional and ultrasonic whistles undergoing human-actuation and actuation by a pressure-regulated air supply are presented. The maximum power density of the conventional whistle actuated by a human at 100 dB sound pressure level is 98.1 uw/cm3.