Piezoelectric energy harvester design and power conditioning

Energy harvesting is fascinating area of research now when the whole world is looking for green energy as an alternative source. This paper describes the design of energy harvester prototype and the power conditioning circuit. The optimization of extracted power out of the piezoelectric tile has been presented. The generation of electric energy when some load is applied on the sensors either in the form of direct strain or ambient vibration depends upon various factors such as number of piezoelectric transducers, electromechanical coupling coefficient of the piezoelectric sensors, amount of load applied, and also on the scheme of arrangement. Energy harvester floor tile has been designed with very inferior quality piezoelectric diaphragms which are used in buzzers. An efficient way has been presented to capture the generated energy via dedicated IC and boost it by a converter to get regulated output for charging the batteries of smart phones. The complete charge cycle has been studied for the developed system. The simulation and experimental studies have been successfully carried out. The model design and testing was purely for studying the energy generation and capturing phenomenon in an efficient manner. It can be implemented to generate large power by suitably considering the several factors mentioned above and implementing it on the large scale.