Performance of small-scale bladeless electromagnetic energy harvesters driven by water or air

Dan Zhao, Chenzhen Ji, C. Teo and Shihuai Li

Energy, 2014, vol. 74, issue C, 99-108

Abstract: In this work, three different-diameter energy harvesters driven by turbulent air flow and rainwater are designed. Experiments are conducted first on the air-driven harvesters to gain insight on the energy conversion process. Unlike conventional blade-involved systems, the present setup involves using a number of co-rotating compact discs. They are closely spaced and attached to a central shaft, on which a magnet is attached. As the air flow excitations are set to 4 different levels, the harvester performances are measured in both open- and closed-loop electrical circuits. The results show that approximately 0.3 W electricity is produced. Parametric analysis is then conducted to highlight the effect of the system parameters, such as disc diameter, number, exhaust flow rates and inter-disc distance on its performance and to gain insight on its optimum design. Numerical simulations are then conducted to understand the flow physics. Finally, a 40 mm harvester is used to harness energy from rainwater. Compared with the same size air-driven harvester, the rainwater-driven one is working more efficiently in terms of the overall energy conversion efficiency. The maximum electric current is about 4.5 mA. A practical demonstration is then conducted by using the electricity generated to power a red light-emitting diode (LED).

Keywords: Electromagnetic; Bladeless harvester; Energy harvesting; Hydropower; Rainwater (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544214004174
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:74:y:2014:i:c:p:99-108

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2014.04.004

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().