Experimental Investigations of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting with Turbulent Flow

Agreeing to the Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Forecast by IDTechEx, the development of the piezoelectric industry is reckoned from $145 million in 2018 to $667 million in 2022. This clearly indicates the escalation of interest of the renewable energy market in piezoelectric since its discovery in 1880. Inspired by the growing demand and unique ability of a piezoelectric energy to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy, the authors present an efficient model of a piezoelectric energy harvester in this technical paper. The proposed harvester is capable of producing electricity by converting dynamic fluid flow pressure of waste water into electrical energy using piezoelectric patches made from PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate). The patches are attached inside the pipes via a mesh and utilizes the flow of segregated waste water flow from households, factories, etc. to produce feasible electricity to power small scale electronic devices. The authors have established the feasibility studies, system engineering experimentations and gathered experimental results confirming the idea and motivation to fabricate and test the actual product.