An eccentric rotational energy harvester using liquid as an energy-capturing medium

Rotational energy harvester (REH), which is one of the rapidly growing areas in self-powered wireless sensors, have recently attracting more and more attentions all over the world. However, to achieve effectively rotational energy harvesting in a variable speed rotary system where the eccentric installation of REH is required, is still a challenge. Hence, a novel REH that uses liquid as an energy-capturing medium is designed and fabricated. The proposed REH includes a piezoelectric beam with a choke plate, a cylindrical shell and liquid. Taking advantage of the liquid's fluidity, the liquid impacts the piezoelectric beam at low rotational speeds and acts as a mass block at high rotational speeds, thus inducing periodic deformation to produce electric output due to piezoelectric effect. To demonstrate the output performance and application of the proposed REH, the prototype of this REH was fabricated and a corresponding experiment setup was built, and the effects of choke plate, liquid level height and eccentricity were investigated. Experimental results show the promising application of the proposed REH in realizing effectively rotational energy harvesting in a variable speed rotary system where the eccentric installation of REH is required.

Automated summary

This research designs and fabricates a rotational energy harvester that uses liquid as an energy-capturing medium. The harvester achieves effective energy harvesting in a variable speed rotary system.