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Electric energy generator

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control · April 2006

DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2006.1610576 · Source: PubMed

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656 ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 3, march 2006

Correspondence
Electric Energy Generator [1]. According to a study by National Renewable Energy
Laboratory wind energy is the fastest growing electricity-
Chih-Ta Chen, Rashed Adnan Islam, and Shashank Priya generating technology in the world.1 In the past 10 years,
global installations of wind energy systems have grown at
Abstract—This study reports an extremely cost-effective least tenfold—from a total capacity of 2.8 gigawatts (GW)
mechanism for converting wind energy into electric en-
in 1993 to almost 40 GW at the close of 2003. In the United
ergy using piezoelectric bimorph actuators at small scale.
The total dimensions of the electric energy generator are States, wind energy installations tripled in only 5 years
5:08 11:6 7:7 cm3 . The rectangular, box-shaped body from 2000 MW in 1998 to more than 6000 MW in late
of the overall structure is made using 3.2-mm thick plastic. 2003.1
Slits are made on two opposite faces of the box so that two In spite of this continuing success of windmills at large
columns and six rows of bimorph actuators can be inserted.
Each row of bimorph actuators is separated from each other
scale, there have been very few attempts on the devel-
by a gap of 6 mm, and the two columns of bimorphs are sep- opment of small-scale wind electric plant [2]. If small
arated from each other by a gap of 6.35 mm. In between scale wind-electric plants generating power in the range of
the two columns, a cylindrical rod is inserted consisting of 100 mW having dimensions of a few cubic centimeters and
six rectangular hooks. The hooks are positioned in such a costing around $5–$10 can be fabricated, then it can offer
way that each of them just touches the two bimorphs on
either side in a particular row. As the wind flows across the
an attractive solution to various common household needs.
generator, it creates a rotary motion on the attached fan Multiple small windmills located around the house-fence
that is converted into vertical motion of the cylindrical rod can run security systems and power night lamps. In farm
using the cam-shaft mechanism. This vertical motion of the houses, a larger version of such small-scale windmills can
cylindrical rod creates oscillating stress on the bimorphs be used for powering the signal lights (consisting of multi-
due to attached hooks. The bimorphs produce output volt-
age proportional to the applied oscillating stress through
ple LEDs requiring power in the range of 10–50 mW), var-
piezoelectric effect. The prototype fabricated in this study ious sensors (temperature, pressure, etc. requiring power
was found to generate 1.2 mW power at a wind speed of in the range of ∼10 mW) and wireless communication
12 mph across the load of 1.7 kΩ. stations (windmills acting as a centralized power source)
[3], [4].
Typical applications for the use of piezoelectric energy
I. Introduction harvesting have inherent and obvious forms of energy to
capture, store, and use. Examples include active sports
odern wind turbines generate electricity using slen-
M der aerodynamic blades and tall towers. A large,
whole-house windmill often produces 8,000 to 12,000 W
equipment such as tennis racquets and skis that use strain
to power actuators for feedback control loops, and watches
that use body motion to supply power. Other suggested
of electricity having a blade diameter of 20 ft or more and applications include the use of aircraft engine vibrations,
weighing around 15–20 pounds. An average speed of 10 airflow over wings, and vibrations induced by driving. The
to 11 mph is typically needed to make the electricity eco- electric power generated can be stored in a capacitor, or
nomically feasible; however, some windmill designs begin miniaturized Li-ion batteries, or it can be immediately
producing electricity at a wind speed as low as 8 mph. used for powering [5]. The process of mechanical to electri-
Generally, windmills are designed so maximum efficiency cal conversion is lossy in nature and depends on the design
occurs at wind velocities of about 18 mph [1]. Efficiency and implementation of the transduction scheme, rectifying
is dependent on wind velocity, and average operating ef- and storage methods, frequency and stress amplitudes, re-
ficiencies usually are about 20%. At low air velocity, ef- sponse time of piezoelectric, and loads.
ficiency can be lower than 20%. Wind power density is Engines and electrical motors in many common ma-
a term commonly used to describe the mechanical power chines can be used for tapping into the stray vibrations
available per unit area swept by the blades. Roughly, wind to produce electricity. A car delivers vibrations between 50
power density is equal to 0.056 ν 3 where ν is in miles per and 120 Hz with a force of 500 kgf, and a farm house feeder
hour and assuming the density of air as unity. It can be provides vibrations of 10–15 Hz with a vertical oscillation
seen from this expression that a large amount of power is load of 350 kg. Previously, Kim et al. have demonstrated
available even with nominal wind velocities and efficien- the capability of harvesting the electrical energy from me-
cies of the order of 10–20%. The efficiency of the windmill chanical vibrations in a dynamic environment through a
can be increased by optimizing the size and, in fact, large cymbal piezoelectric transducer [6], [7]. The mechanical
windmills operate at maximum efficiencies of about 40% vibrations were in the range of 50–150 Hz with force am-
plitude of the order of 10 N. The metal cap enhances the
Manuscript received May 27, 2005; accepted September 23, 2005.
The authors are with the Materials Science and Engineering De-
partment, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019. 1 Website: http://www.nrel.gov/features/

0885–3010/$20.00

c 2006 IEEE
chen et al.: mechanism for converting wind energy to electric energy 657

endurance of the ceramic to sustain high loads along with

stress amplification. The experiments were performed at a
frequency of 100 Hz on a cymbal with a 29-mm diameter
and a 1-mm thickness under force of 7.8 N [5]. At this fre-
quency and force level, a power of 39 mW was generated
from the cymbal, which was measured across a 400 kΩ re-
sistor. A direct current (DC)-DC converter was designed
that allowed transfer of 30 mW power to a low impedance
load of 5 kΩ with a 2% duty cycle and a switching fre-
quency of 1 kHz.
Compared to mechanical vibrations from automobiles,
walking, rotary machines, and water flow, wind is a far
more attractive source of electrical energy. Approximately
2% of the sun’s energy reaching the earth is converted into
wind energy. It is available everywhere, making the tech-
nology to be implemental on a universal platform. Normal
vibration sources in the environment are random and dif-
ficult to control. However, wind flow provides a constant
source of mechanical energy.
The objective of this study is to develop a mechanism
for generating electric energy from wind energy at small
scale. A piezoelectric transducer was selected as the en-
ergy converter because of the following inherent advan-
tages: voltages of 1–10 V can be easily obtained, exhibits
high energy density of 15–17 mJ/cm3 , does not require
separate voltage source, and provides high electromechan-
ical efficiency. There are three main steps in electric power
generation using piezoelectric: trapping of the mechanical
alternating current (AC) stress from available sources and Fig. 1. Schematic and pictures of the fabricated electric energy gen-
erator. (a) Schematic showing the arrangement of the bimorph trans-
applying it to piezoelectric transducer, conversion of the
ducers. (b) Photograph of the fabricated prototype. (c) Loading of
mechanical energy into electrical energy using direct piezo- the bimorphs using rectangular hooks.
electric effect, and processing and storage of the electrical
energy.
produces charge through direct piezoelectric effect. Thus,
continuous back and forth oscillation of bimorph will con-
II. Experimental Procedure tinuously generate electricity. The cylindrical rod bearings
were designed to be with very low friction. The rectangu-
Fig. 1(a)–(c) shows the schematic and photographs of lar box with bimorph transducers and cylindrical rod was
the fabricated electric energy generator. The total dimen- mounted on a central rotating shaft. At one end of the
sions of the electric energy generator are 5.08 × 11.6 × shaft, fan blades were attached causing the shaft to rotate
7.7 cm3 . The rectangular, box-shaped body of the over- by the motion of the wind. The oscillating stress generated
all structure is made using 3.2-mm thick plastic. Slits are from the rotation of the fan is transferred to the cylindrical
made on two opposite faces of the box. Twelve bimorph rod by using a cam of height 4 mm.
transducers were arranged in six rows and two columns The piezoelectric material has a great impact on achiev-
separated from each other by a gap of 6 mm through the able performance of the transducer. Under an applied force
slit. The two columns of bimorphs are separated from each (F = X.A, where A is the area and X is the stress), the
other by a gap of 6.35 mm. In between the two columns, electric power density available during the cyclic excitation
a cylindrical rod is inserted consisting of six rectangular is given as:
hooks. The hooks are positioned in such a way that each 1
of them just touches the two bimorphs from the bottom P = CV 2 · f,
2
on either side in a particular row. The dimensions of each
individual bimorph were 60 × 20 × 0.6 mm3 with a free or:
length of 55 mm. The resonance frequency and capacitance
P 1
for this size of bimorph was 65 Hz and 170 nF, respec- = (d.g) · X 2 · f, (1)
tively. This resonance corresponds to the bending mode volume 2
of the bimorph. The displacement of the bimorph under where g is the piezoelectric voltage coefficient, d is the
the maximum stress was equal to the height of the cam. piezoelectric stress constant, C is the capacitance of the
As the bimorph is pressed against the rectangular hook, it material, and f is the frequency. The above relation-
658 ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 3, march 2006

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit for the piezoelectric energy generator.

ship shows that, under given experimental conditions for

a material of fixed volume, the electrical power is de-
pendent upon the product (d.g) of the material. Based Fig. 3. Impedance spectrum of the fabricated prototype measured in
on this conclusion, a soft PZT-based composition APC the free and stressed condition.
855 (APC International, Mackeyville, PA) having g31 of
−8.8 × 10−3 m2 /C and d31 of 270 pC/N was selected as
the bimorph material (d31 · g31 = 2376 × 10−15 m2 /N). circuit response of the bimorph. The voltage across the
Before the operation of the generator, the bimorphs load then can be expressed as:
were prestressed to have a bending of 0.77 mm at the tip





touching the hooks. The prestress is compressive in nature



RLoad

and perpendicular to the bimorph length, or along the di-

VLoad = VOC

, (2)


rection of poling of ceramics. The output power increases
RLoad + 1 + RS


jωC

with the prestress level; however, the rotation of the fan
becomes proportionately difficult. Thus, the prestress level where RS is the series resistance and C is the damped
was adjusted to 2.9 kPa such that the fan could be rotated capacitance of the bimorph. The series resistance can be
easily in the normal wind flow conditions. This magnitude computed using the expression tan δ/ωC. The open circuit
of the prestress is quite small to have any significant effect response of the bimorph is given as [8]:
on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of the mate-
 2
rial. The prestress mainly serves the purpose of mechanical 3 H
support as the power generated by this prestress cannot VOC = h31 δz, (3)
8 L
be harvested (it acts as a DC component). It is required
for three important reasons: to maintain the contact of where δz is the deflection of the bimorph under the cyclic
the bimorphs with the hooks; to maintain the compressive stress, h31 is the piezoelectric constant, H is the total
stress all the time, thus eliminating all the other compo- thickness, and L is the length of the bimorph. Using
nents such as shear; and to enhance the relaxation time of the material constant for APC 855 ceramic (APC Inter-
the bimorph. national, Mackeyville, PA) and bimorph parameters as:
The characterization of the generator was done by blow- H = 0.6 mm, L = 55 mm, h31 = −1.67 × 108 V/m, and
ing the wind using a fan. Wind speed was measured us- δz = 0.5 mm. The open circuit voltage was determined to
ing an EA-3010U anemometer (La Crosse Technology, La be 3.72 V. The average power delivered to the load then
Crescent, MN) fitted at the top of the mill. The voltage can be found using the expression:
was monitored on the HP 54601A digital four-channel os- 2
VLoad
cilloscope (Agilent Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA) us- P = . (4)
ing a HP 10071A probe (Agilent Technologies, Inc.). The 2RLoad
impedance measurements were done using the HP 4194A Using (4) and substituting the magnitude of the pa-
analyzer (Agilent Technologies, Inc.). The capacitance and rameters as RLoad = 1.7 kΩ, C = 3.55 µF, tan δ = 0.02,
dielectric loss factor as a function of frequency was mea- the magnitude of average power at 12 Hz frequency was
sured using a HP 4275 LCR meter (Agilent Technologies, determined to be 0.68 mW.
Inc.). Initially, the impedance spectrum of the fabricated pro-
totype was measured in the free and stressed condition
as shown in Fig. 3. The impedance curve in the stress-free
III. Results and Discussion condition (when the rectangular hooks are not pressing the
bimorphs) showed two clear peaks, one at 669 Hz and other
The piezoelectric generator can be represented by the at 4.92 kHz. The peak at 669 Hz represents the resonance
equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2. This equivalent circuit corresponding to the bending mode of the whole structure
is valid in the frequency range far from the resonance [8]. (12 bimorphs + mechanical assembly) as this peak was not
In this circuit, the voltage source is taken to be the open found in the impedance curve of a single bimorph, and the
chen et al.: mechanism for converting wind energy to electric energy 659

peak at 4.92 kHz represents the higher-order bending mode

resonance of the bimorphs. There are several peaks around
this frequency that may be associated with the slight dif-
ferences in the mounting of the bimorphs. The bending
resonance found at 65 Hz for a single bimorph was sup-
pressed after inserting it in the generator assembly. This
is commonly observed in the case of the bimorph trans-
ducers in which even small loading and clamping results
in suppression of the lower order bending modes.
The effective electromechanical coupling factor (keff ) of
the generator in the free condition can be computed using
the following relationship [9]:

  2
fr
keff = 1− , (5)
fa

where fr and fa are resonance and antiresonance frequen-

cies. Using the values of fr = 669.25 Hz and fa = 743.5 Hz,
the magnitude of keff was found to be 0.43. In the stressed
condition, all the peaks in the resonance spectrum de-
creased significantly, indicating the suppression of the vi-
bration modes. At lower frequencies of less than 500 Hz, no
peaks were observed in the impedance curve. For a typical
mechanical vibration cycle, the input mechanical energy is
transformed into electric energy with the ratio depending Fig. 4. Variation of the tan δ and capacitance as a function of the
frequency. (a) tan δ. (b) Capacitance.
upon the square of the electromechanical coupling factor,
2
keff = (stored electrical energy/input mechanical energy),
and the remainder of unconsumed energy is stored as me- tween the electromechanical coupling factor and the max-
chanical energy reduced by a factor dissipated as heat. In imum transmission coefficient is given by [10]:
2
the present design, the magnitude of the keff was found to
  2
be 0.185.
1 1
In addition to keff , the other important parameters to be λmax = − −1 . (6)
k k2
considered for the electromechanical transducer/actuator
structure are dielectric loss factor (tan δ) and energy trans- Using the magnitude of keff as 0.43, the value of λmax
mission coefficient, λ. Fig. 4(a) and (b) shows the variation was found to be 0.05. This number is low as compared to
of the tan δ and capacitance as a function of the frequency. that of the cymbal transducer that has λ of about 0.12 or
At low frequencies, the loss factor was of the order of 2%. a stack actuator that has λ of about 0.28 fabricated us-
Further, the loss factor was lower in the stressed condi- ing the PZT-5A ceramics [6]. However, it should be noted
tion as compared to the free condition. The capacitance here that this transmission efficiency is of the fully assem-
behavior as a function of the frequency showed a very dis- bled structure with 12 bimorph transducers as compared
continuous behavior that may be related to the presence of to that single, unstressed cymbal or stack actuator and is
mechanical vibration modes. The variation in the magni- expected to be considerably lower.
tude of the loss factor and capacitance corresponds to the Fig. 5(a) and (b) show the experimental data measured
changes in the impedance curve. Around the piezoelectric on the fabricated prototype. Fig. 5(a) shows the output
resonance, the magnitude of loss factor and capacitance voltage (V) signal waveform measured across the load of
increases. The sharp increase in the magnitude of loss fac- 1 MΩ. Fig. 5(b) shows the voltage waveform across a load
tor at the frequency of 100 Hz in the stress-free condition of 1.7 kΩ. The voltage level and signal waveform depend
may be associated with the leakage current from the in- on the design parameters and electric load used in the cir-
terface between the epoxy and piezoelectric and soldering cuit. Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows the output voltage and power
of wires. Overall, the data of Fig. 4 indicates that, in the as a function of resistive load at 8 Hz frequency. The av-
stress condition, the dielectric loss factor remained in the erage power across a resistor (R) was calculated using the
range of 2%. relation V 2 /(2.R). At the frequency of 8 Hz and load of
The transmission coefficient, λ, is the ratio of the me- 1.7 kΩ, the generated electrical power was found to be
chanical output energy over input electrical energy or the 0.83 mW. The maximum in the power was found to occur
electrical output energy over input mechanical energy, and at 670 Ω with a magnitude of 0.96 mW. The magnitude
it is a significant parameter for actuators. The relation be- of the matching load (the resistive load at which power
660 ieee transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, vol. 53, no. 3, march 2006

Fig. 6. Output voltage and power as a function of resistive load at

8 Hz frequency: (a) voltage and (b) power. A maximum power of
Fig. 5. Output voltage waveforms measured across various loads: 0.96 mW was obtained at the load of 670 Ω.
(a) 1 MΩ and (b) 1.7 kΩ.

is maximum) is dependent on various parameters, includ-

ing the damped output capacitance, capacitance change
with prestress, dielectric loss factor, impedance of the rec-
tification circuit, and changes due to structural assembly.
Neglecting all the other factors, the matching load can be
approximated as:
1
Theoretical matching load = , (7)
2πf.Cdamped

which for the present case comes out to be about 1 kΩ. This
magnitude of the matching impedance is in good range for
incorporating it with the charging circuits. A low magni-
tude of the matching load is required because the batteries
or other external devices have impedances of the order of
a few tens of ohms [11].
It was found that, at a given wind speed, the frequency
of the oscillation saturates and the power attains a con-
stant magnitude. The power increases with increasing wind
speed, which is related to the increment in the frequency.
Fig. 7(a) shows the variation of the power as a function of
the frequency. A linear variation was obtained that is ex-
pected from (1). At the frequency of 12 Hz, the magnitude
of generated power was 1.2 mW across the 1.7 kΩ load.
This magnitude is slightly higher than the calculated value
Fig. 7. (a) Variation of the power as a function of the frequency.
using the equivalent circuit. The reason for this difference
(b) Power-speed relationship for the fabricated generator.
can be associated to the higher bimorph displacement than
chen et al.: mechanism for converting wind energy to electric energy 661

the 0.5 mm (measured using the polytec laser vibrometer) load. The measured power was found to be in agreement
and change in the magnitude of the capacitance under dy- with the prediction based on an equivalent circuit.
namic conditions. The exact real-time displacement of the
bimorph is difficult to be measured at the higher oscillating
speeds.
References
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