Vibrational turbine piezoelectric nanogenerators for energy harvesting in multiphase flow fields

Abstract

This study reports the vibrational turbine piezoelectric nanogenerators (VT-PENG) that use magnetic coupling to trigger a set of silicon rubber strips embedded with piezoelectric films for energy harvesting in amphibious environments. The piezo-rubber strips are deflected by the tip-driven magnets in the strip-anchor systems, such that the VT-PENG can be efficiently triggered to generate electrical energy from mechanical vibration. The VT-PENG prototypes are fabricated, and the experiments are conducted to investigate the energy harvesting performance (i.e., voltage and electrical power) of single and multiple strips of the VT-PENG. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate the experimental results, and satisfactory agreements are observed. The maximum electrical power is obtained as approximately 9 uW for each curved piezoelectric strip and 4 uW for each planar strip. In the end, the field experiments are conducted to test the energy harvesting in the lake. The reported VT-PENG can be applied in low-medium energy harvesting needs under various flow fields.

Keywords

• Vibrational turbine systems
• Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG)
• Amphibious energy harvesting
• Multiple flow fields