REVIEW PAPER ON HARVESTING ENERGY USING PIEZOELECTRIC TRANSDUCERS

Abstract

A life of human beings is dependent on the energy which they consume for their everyday purpose, it can be for illumination, running a gadget and many other purposes which contribute towards the development of mankind and also for economic growth. If global energy consumption is taken into consideration, every resource has its own quantity. As the years pass by, one can observe the depletion of naturally available conventional resources of energy. Hence, the world has been shifting to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, tidal power. Even though, there isn’t any greater transformation in the energy consumption from the conventional sources due to their higher efficiency deliveries. If an alternative energy resource has to be discovered, one has to look for the sources available in the surrounding. When the road traffic is considered for an instance, the number of vehicles travelling are enormous and due to the movement, every vehicle induces a certain number of vibrations into the pavement below which collectively turns out to be plenty if the vibrations from all the vehicles are to be taken in account. The researchers have come up with a technology to harness this energy and make it usable to the consumers. To convert one form of energy to another, a transducer can be used which is capable of transforming the entire input energy into an output voltage. This form of output is said to be called ‘piezoelectricity’ where the incident pressure is potentially converted into electricity that can be utilized for numerous purposes.