Study of a Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Floor Structure with Force Amplification Mechanism

Ming He, Sheng Wang, Xiang Zhong and Mingjie Guan
Additional contact information
Ming He: Department of Instrumental and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Sheng Wang: Department of Instrumental and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Xiang Zhong: Department of Instrumental and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Mingjie Guan: Department of Instrumental and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-10

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel energy harvesting floor structure using piezoelectric elements for converting energy from human steps into electricity. The piezoelectric energy harvesting structure was constructed by a force amplification mechanism and a double-layer squeezing structure in which piezoelectric beams were deployed. The generated electrical voltage and output power were investigated in practical conditions under different strokes and step frequencies. The maximum peak-to-peak voltage was found to be 51.2 V at a stroke of 5 mm and a step frequency of 1.81 Hz. In addition, the corresponding output power for a single piezoelectric beam was tested to be 134.2 μW, demonstrating the potential of harvesting energy from the pedestrians for powering low-power electronic devices.

Keywords: piezoelectric; energy harvesting; floor; optimal load (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/18/3516/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/18/3516/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:18:p:3516-:d:266699

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().