Magnet-Actuated Piezoelectric Harvester for Energy Harvesting from Fluids

Abstract

Energy harvesting has been at the forefront of research due to the significant interest in green energy sources, especially for powering remote sensors in structural health monitoring of coastal and offshore facilities. This work reports the magnet-actuated piezoelectric harvesters (M-APH) that use magnetic coupling to actuate piezoelectric film-embedded silicon rubber strips for energy harvesting from fluids. The piezo-silicon strips are deflected by the tip-magnets in the actuation system, such that the M-APH can effectively be triggered to generate electrical energy from vibration. The M-APH prototypes are printed using 3D printing technology, and the experiments are conducted to determine the output electrical voltage using a rectifier. Strip properties are varied to study the geometric influence (i.e., thickness and shape) on the energy performance. The electrical performance was evaluated for each curved piezoelectric strip and straight strips according to the piezoelectric material used. The reported M-APH can be applied to various fluids for energy harvesting.