Novel energy harvesting: A macro fiber composite piezoelectric energy harvester in the water vortex

This paper presents a macro fiber composite (MFC) piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) which is immersed into the water vortex field shedding from an upstream cylinder. The PEH consists of an MFC (M8514-P2) beam and a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) layer. A mathematical model with respect to the energy harvesting ability of this PEH in the vortex field was established. Both the numerical and the experimental methods were used to analyze the output power of this PEH versus cylinder diameters (30, 40, 50 mm) and water velocities (0.05-0.5 m/s). The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results. It verifies the validity of the established mathematical model. Further, it is found that the water velocity plays a stronger role on the output power than the cylinder diameter does. The output power of the PEH rises with the increase of the water velocity. The PEH achieved a maximum output power of 1.32 μW with a power density 1.1 mW/m² at the water velocity of 0.5 m/s and the cylinder diameter of 30 mm.