An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester

Raindrop energy harvesting provides a good energy resource that can be applied in rainy environments. While extensive research has been investigated on raindrop energy harvesting by using piezoelectric mechanism, a higher efficiency of piezoelectric raindrop energy harvester (PREH) are still in on-g...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Wong, Chin Hong
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2017
Subjects:	T Technology
Online Access:	http://eprints.usm.my/45826/1/An%20Improved%20Design%20Of%20Piezoelectric%20Raindrop%20Energy%20Harvester.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my-usm-ep.45826
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-usm-ep.458262021-11-17T03:42:17Z An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester 2017-01 Wong, Chin Hong T Technology TK Electrical Engineering. Electronics. Nuclear Engineering Raindrop energy harvesting provides a good energy resource that can be applied in rainy environments. While extensive research has been investigated on raindrop energy harvesting by using piezoelectric mechanism, a higher efficiency of piezoelectric raindrop energy harvester (PREH) are still in on-going research. This research study presents design and development of an improved design of PREH. In order to achieve the desired improved design, several steps have been conducted. This includes investigation on the raindrop profiles to predict the kinetic energy in a falling droplet. It was found that the total kinetic energy depends on the droplet sizes and fall velocities. Secondly, an experiment was conducted to compare the performances of commonly used commercial PVDF transducers which are bridge and cantilever structures which were subjected to simulated raindrops. Experimental results showed that, the bridge structure transducer with dimension of 30 mm × 4 mm × 25 μm generated higher open-circuit voltage than cantilever structure, which is 4.22 V and 0.41 V, respectively. The next step is the Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis through COMSOL Multiphysics software to investigate open-circuit voltage, charge density, deflection of transducer, and resonance frequency. Based on the bridge structure, various types of modified structures; S-shaped, zigzag-shaped, H-shaped, and X-shaped transducers were further investigated via FEM simulation. Based on the simulation results, the optimum structure of PREH is the six-spoke wagon wheel structure which is modified from X-shaped. It generated 63.85% higher voltage and 223.42% higher charge density than the basic bridge structure transducer. Therefore, the six-spoke wagon wheel transducer is selected to be fabricated. The fabricated PVDF transducer is also validated and characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) measurements. The ezoelectr c constant was enhanced to 7 C/N and the β-phase content was improved to 57.8% by corona poling process. The fabricated transducer generated DC voltage of 22.5 mV and electrical power of 15.3 nW as impacted by actual raindrops. Based on simulation results, the performance for six-spoke wagon wheel structure is better than the bridge structure. However, the experimental results showed the other way. This is due to the piezoelectric constant, d33, for the fabricated transducer (7 pC/N) is lower than commercial transducers (16 pC/N). The discrepancy of the value of the d33 is due to the limited poling voltage in the poling apparatus. In overall, the research has successfully investigated an improved design of PREH through simulation and experimental. Although the power is considerably small, it is proven that the raindrop energy would be a promising approach in energy harvesting application. 2017-01 Thesis http://eprints.usm.my/45826/ http://eprints.usm.my/45826/1/An%20Improved%20Design%20Of%20Piezoelectric%20Raindrop%20Energy%20Harvester.pdf application/pdf en public phd doctoral Universiti Sains Malaysia Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Elektrik & Elektronik
institution	Universiti Sains Malaysia
collection	USM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	T Technology T Technology
spellingShingle	T Technology T Technology Wong, Chin Hong An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester
description	Raindrop energy harvesting provides a good energy resource that can be applied in rainy environments. While extensive research has been investigated on raindrop energy harvesting by using piezoelectric mechanism, a higher efficiency of piezoelectric raindrop energy harvester (PREH) are still in on-going research. This research study presents design and development of an improved design of PREH. In order to achieve the desired improved design, several steps have been conducted. This includes investigation on the raindrop profiles to predict the kinetic energy in a falling droplet. It was found that the total kinetic energy depends on the droplet sizes and fall velocities. Secondly, an experiment was conducted to compare the performances of commonly used commercial PVDF transducers which are bridge and cantilever structures which were subjected to simulated raindrops. Experimental results showed that, the bridge structure transducer with dimension of 30 mm × 4 mm × 25 μm generated higher open-circuit voltage than cantilever structure, which is 4.22 V and 0.41 V, respectively. The next step is the Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis through COMSOL Multiphysics software to investigate open-circuit voltage, charge density, deflection of transducer, and resonance frequency. Based on the bridge structure, various types of modified structures; S-shaped, zigzag-shaped, H-shaped, and X-shaped transducers were further investigated via FEM simulation. Based on the simulation results, the optimum structure of PREH is the six-spoke wagon wheel structure which is modified from X-shaped. It generated 63.85% higher voltage and 223.42% higher charge density than the basic bridge structure transducer. Therefore, the six-spoke wagon wheel transducer is selected to be fabricated. The fabricated PVDF transducer is also validated and characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) measurements. The ezoelectr c constant was enhanced to 7 C/N and the β-phase content was improved to 57.8% by corona poling process. The fabricated transducer generated DC voltage of 22.5 mV and electrical power of 15.3 nW as impacted by actual raindrops. Based on simulation results, the performance for six-spoke wagon wheel structure is better than the bridge structure. However, the experimental results showed the other way. This is due to the piezoelectric constant, d33, for the fabricated transducer (7 pC/N) is lower than commercial transducers (16 pC/N). The discrepancy of the value of the d33 is due to the limited poling voltage in the poling apparatus. In overall, the research has successfully investigated an improved design of PREH through simulation and experimental. Although the power is considerably small, it is proven that the raindrop energy would be a promising approach in energy harvesting application.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Wong, Chin Hong
author_facet	Wong, Chin Hong
author_sort	Wong, Chin Hong
title	An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester
title_short	An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester
title_full	An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester
title_fullStr	An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester
title_full_unstemmed	An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester
title_sort	improved design of piezoelectric raindrop energy harvester
granting_institution	Universiti Sains Malaysia
granting_department	Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Elektrik & Elektronik
publishDate	2017
url	http://eprints.usm.my/45826/1/An%20Improved%20Design%20Of%20Piezoelectric%20Raindrop%20Energy%20Harvester.pdf
_version_	1747821575669809152

An Improved Design Of Piezoelectric Raindrop Energy Harvester

Similar Items