Journal
AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING AND AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY
Volume 82, Issue 6, Pages 376-381Publisher
EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1108/00022661011104538
Keywords
Wind power; Windmills; Electric power generation; Urban areas
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology [2010-0021360]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Purpose - Current technology uses large windmills that operate in remote regions and have complex generating mechanisms such as towers, blades gears, speed controls, magnets, and coils. In a city, wind energy that would otherwise be wasted can be claimed and stored for later use. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a small-scale windmill that can work in urban areas. Design/methodology/approach - The device uses a piezo-composite generating element (PCGE) to generate the electric power. The PCGE is composed of layers of carbon/epoxy, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic, and glass/epoxy cured at an elevated temperature. Previous work by the authors had proved that the PCGE can produce high performance energy harvesting. Findings - In the prototype, the PCGE performed as a secondary beam element. One end of the PCGE is attached to the frame of the device. Additionally, the fan blade rotates in the direction of the wind and hits the other end of the PCGE. When the PCGE is excited, the effects of the beam's deformation enable it to generate electric power. The power generation and battery charging capabilities of the proposed device were tested, and the results show that the prototype can harvest energy in urban regions using minor wind movement. Originality/value - The paper presents a prototype that uses a PCGE for harvesting wind energy in urban areas. The PCGE has the potential of being used as a generator for harvesting energy from sources such as machine vibration, body motion, wind, and ocean waves. The PCGE design is flexible: the ply orientation and the size of the prepreg layers can be changed. Generating elements with a specific stacking sequence can be used for scavenging energy in a wide range of applications such as network sensors, portable electronics, and microelectromechanical systems.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available