The effectiveness of different width piezoelectric energy harvester in the pedestrian floor tile energy harvesting system for internet of things sensors

Abstract

A pedestrian floor tile energy harvesting system (PFEH) capable of accommodating harvesters of variable widths (20, 30, and 40 mm) is designed for operating Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. The electrical characteristics of the piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) were measured using an impedance analyzer. The PEHs in the PFEH are displaced following a cantilever mechanism, over a distance of 4 mm. Finite element simulations using the ANSYS tool reveal similar stress distributions for various widths at the same displacement (d = 4 mm). The 40 mm PEH group (six 40 mm wide PEHs) produced the highest output power of 1.01 mWmax under identical impedance conditions (RL = 105 kΩ). The PFEH containing the 40 mm PEH group turns on a small LED display board (comprising 30 LEDs) for 2 s through an undervoltage-lockout (UVLO) module. The proposed pedestrian floor tile energy harvesting system can be employed as a power source for IoT sensors.