This paper presents the design, modeling and experimental analysis of an amplified footstep energy harvester. With the unique design of amplified piezoelectric stack harvester the kinetic energy generated by footsteps can be effectively captured and converted into usable DC power that could potentially be used to power many electric devices, such as smart phones, sensors, monitoring cameras, etc. This doormat-like energy harvester can be used in crowded places such as train stations, malls, concerts, airport escalator/elevator/stairs entrances, or anywhere large group of people walk. The harvested energy provides an alternative renewable green power to replace power requirement from grids, which run on highly polluting and global-warming-inducing fossil fuels. In this paper, two modeling approaches are compared to calculate power output. The first method is derived from the single degree of freedom (SDOF) constitutive equations, and then a correction factor is applied onto the resulting electromechanically coupled equations of motion. The second approach is to derive the coupled equations of motion with Hamilton’s principle and the constitutive equations, and then formulate it with the finite element method (FEM). Experimental testing results are presented to validate modeling approaches. Simulation results from both approaches agree very well with experimental results where percentage errors are 2.09% for FEM and 4.31% for SDOF.

Date Published: 1 April 2014
PDF: 16 pages
Proc. SPIE 9057, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2014, 905724 (1 April 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2056634

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9057:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2014
Wei-Hsin Liao, Editor(s)