Self-powered system by a suspension structure-based triboelectric-electromagnetic-piezoelectric hybrid generator for unifying wind energy and vibration harvesting with vibration attenuation function

Abstract

The large-scale deployment of the floor-mounted wind energy nanogenerator with wind cup structure in the Internet of Things provides a promising solution for the continuous and reliable power supply of distributed sensor systems. However, some wind energy harvesting scenarios have high requirements for placement and fixation of device, thereby the suspension structure-based wind energy harvester is considered to be a potential solution in the suspension scenarios. In this paper, a suspension structure-based triboelectric-electromagnetic-piezoelectric hybrid generator (SS-TEPG) with the innovative strategy appropriately integrates suspension and damping structure for jointly achieving high efficiency wind and vibration energy harvesting with vibration attenuation function, consisting of a wind-driven triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid generator (WD-TEHG), a vibration-driven piezoelectric energy generator and damper (VD-PEGD), and a spring-based energy dissipation structure. After the structural optimization, the vibration energy harvester delivered the instantaneous load power from 1.9 to 8.2 mW on varied vibration frequencies ranging from 8.3 to 31.2 Hz, the TENG and EMG modules of wind energy harvester delivered the instantaneous load power from 0.6 to 2.1 mW and 0.9 to 73.1 mW on varied wind speeds ranging from 2.9 to 16.2 m s−1, respectively, with a significant electrical energy output. The integrated damping structure by the combination of the vibration energy harvester and spring-based energy dissipation structure achieved a significant breakthrough in vibration attenuation of the self-powered device in the suspension scenarios. Moreover, a self-powered system equipped with a traditional hybridized power management (T-HPM) was demonstrated to co-manage three electrical outputs. A LTC 3588-based hybridized power management (L-HPM) with undervoltage lock function was further proposed to effectively co-manage three electrical outputs and provide the standardized typical output for the Bluetooth sensor, which achieved 94% reduction in power consumption compared with the traditional power management. Finally, it is verified that the self-powered system by a hybrid generator equipped with a LTC 3588-based hybridized power management has the characteristics of fast start-up process, short undervoltage charge accumulation process and high energy conversion efficiency, indicating the large-scale application prospects of unifying the energy harvesting in terms of natural wind and harmful vibration.