Industrial Training

Mid Term Report

Energy Harvesting Using Piezoelectric Materials

Undertaken at

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Submitted by: Guided by:

BHARAT THAKUR Dr. Yajvender Pal Verma
UE124016 Principal Investigator
UIET, Panjab University

UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

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 Declaration

I hereby declare that the project titled ‘Piezoelectric Shoe Charging’ is an authentic record of our own work
carried out as a part of Industrial Training from January 2016 – June 2016 at Design Innovation Center (DIC)
University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panjab University, Chandigarh under the supervision of Mr.
Ritendra Mishra and guidance of Dr. Yajvender Pal Verma.

6TH April 2016

Industry Coordinator Faculty Coordinator

Dr. Yajvender Pal Verma Mr. Deepak Kumar
Principal Investigator Asst. Professor
Design Innovation Centre UIET, Panjab university

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 Acknowledgements

I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help
of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to Mr. Ritendra Mishra for his constant supervision as well as for providing necessary
information regarding the project & also for his support in completing the project. I would also like to thank Dr.
Yajvender Pal Verma for his support and opportunity of internship at Design Innovation Centre.

I would like to express my gratitude towards our parents for their kind co-operation and encouragement which
help me in completion of this project.

I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to all the Lab Technicians for giving me such attention
and time and providing us all the necessary equipment needed on time.

My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleagues in developing the project and people who have willingly
helped us out with their abilities.

Bharat Thakur
UE124016

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S.no Topic Page No.

1 Design Innovation Centre 5

2 Executive Summary 6
3 Introduction 7
4 System Analysis 9
5 Fabrication 10
6 Construction of Shoe harvesters 12
7 Data Acquisition 13
8 Battery Charging 14
9 Application 17
10 References 19

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 1. Design Innovation Centre

The Ministry of Human resource Development, Government of India, as a part of its 12th Five year plan (2012-
17) has taken a national initiative to set up a network of Design Innovation Centers (DICs) across the country.
One Open Design School and a National Design Innovation Network will link these DICs to evolve a nationwide
ecosystem of resource and knowledge sharing to impart education and training to foster the innovative culture of
designing products, processes and technologies of need to society. The MHRD has approved the establishment
of a DIC at Panjab University, Chandigarh to focus on innovations around engineering products, add value to the
available engineering designs and promote early stage start-up companies. Several ideas are being perused for
developing a new pedagogy in teaching and training in design, new fabrications and innovations. A number of
design technologies for smart cities, biomedical devices, advanced materials, navigational and tourism aids, green
environment, energy & traffic management, communication etc will be taken up at the DIC at Panjab University.

The DIC in Chandigarh region hopes to evolve a culture that would attract some of the brightest engineering
students and industries for working at the DIC. The industry should look forward to the DIC to add value to their
products and solve their technical problems. The DIC hopes to become a major center for interdisciplinary
innovations, where a number of institutes in engineering, biological and chemical sciences will converge together
to form a functional cluster that would innovatively handle bigger problems in Science and Technology.

The following four technology areas are currently in progress.

a. Traffic Sensing & Information Technologies.
b. Medical Devices & Restorative Technologies.
c. Energy Harvesting and Management Technologies.
d. Transparent Ceramic Materials & Technologies.

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2. Executive Summary

The project aims to combat the energy shortage in today’s world by scavenging energy from the walking
process using piezoelectric materials. After thoroughly presenting the theory behind the working of
piezoelectric elements, the sizes and shapes of piezoelectric material; to be used are brainstormed. This is
followed by deciding the standard interface and then the storage device for the project.
The project is implemented using two models, where in experiments have been conducted to verify the
proposed application. To improve upon the first model and deriving results from the experiments conducted,
a second model of making the insole shoe was made.
Various applications have been thought of which could utilize the power thus generated ranging from lighting
an SMD panel to charging a cell phone for a few seconds. A plethora of other devices may be operated in this
range of power, eg Thermocouples, Transcievers, RFID tags etc.
It is evident that harnessing energy through piezoelectric materials provides a cleaner way of powering
lighting systems and other equipment. It is a new approach to lead the world into implementing greener
technologies that are aimed at protecting the environment. Piezoelectric energy harvesting systems are a
onetime installment and they require very less maintenance, making them cost efficient.
More options can be explored to make optimum use of the project into a large scale implementable venture.

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 3. Introduction
Energy harvesting has been a topic of discussion and research since three decades. With the ever increasing and
demanding energy needs, unearthing and exploiting more and more energy sources has become a need of the day.
At one hand, rising concern about the gap between demand and supply of electricity for masses has highlighted
the exploration of alternate sources of energy and its sustainable use. On the other hand, human population all
over the world and hence energy demand is increasing day by day linearly. Energy harvesting is the process by
which energy is derived from external sources and utilized to drive the machines directly, or the energy is captured
and stored for future use. It uses this captured energy to improve efficiency and to enable new technology, like
wireless sensor networks. Energy harvesting also has the potential to replace batteries for small, low power
electronic devices. With the recent surge of micro-scale devices, piezoelectric power generation can provide a
convenient alternative to traditional power sources used to operate certain types of sensors/actuators, telemetry,
and MEMS devices. The advances have allowed numerous doors to open for power harvesting systems in
practical real-world applications.

Fig.1 Energy Harvesting Methods

Much of the research into power harvesting has focused on methods of accumulating the energy until a sufficient
amount is present, allowing the intended electronics to be powered. Some traditional energy harvesting schemes
are solar farms, wind farms, tidal energy utilizing farms, geothermal energy farms and many more. With the
advent of technology, utilization of these sources has increased by leaps and bounds.
This technology is based on a principle called the piezoelectric effect, in which certain materials have the ability
to build up an electrical charge from having pressure and strain applied to them. Piezoelectricity refers to the
ability of some materials to generate an electric potential in response to applied pressure.
Piezoelectric materials can be used as mechanisms to transform mechanical energy, usually ambient vibration
into electrical energy that can be used to power other devices. The practice of harnessing the energy around a
system and converting it into usable power is termed power harvesting. By implementing power harvesting
devices, portable systems can be developed that do not depend on traditional methods for providing power, such
as the battery, which has a limited operating life.

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However, the energy generated through the piezoelectric effect is not sufficient for directly powering most
electronic devices. Therefore, a means of accumulating and storing the harvested energy so that it may be used to
power portable electronics are an important aspect of a power harvesting system. In recent studies and
experiments, several researchers have found that if the energy provided by a piezoelectric device is to be of use,
it must be accumulated in some way.

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting is a new and innovative step in the direction of energy harvesting. Not much
research has been carried out till now in this field, hence it is a challenging job to extract energy from
piezoelectricity.
The development of long-life energy harvesters would reduce the need for batteries and wires thus enabling cost-
effective and environment friendlier solutions for various applications such as autonomous wireless sensor
networks, powering of portable electronics and other maintenance-free systems.

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 4. System Analysis
In today’s era, the demand for energy is burgeoning day by day. Various methods of energy generation
have been developed. But methods employed for these purposes are expensive, space consuming,
material consuming and hazardous to environment. The Power plants need large amount of land for
which deforestation and rehabilitation of settlements is to be done. This in turn affects the entire
ecosystem and the entire social system. Besides, such form of power generation leads to depletion of
resources.Therefore there is a vacuum for alternative efficient ecofriendly power resource. Thus
piezoelectric power generation can be a good alternative for fossil fuels. It is clean, non-hazardous, easily
implementable, in-expensive and ecofriendly source of energy. There is no byproduct in this kind of
power generation. It occupies less space and is easily portable. We can implement this piezoelectric effect
in various ways to generate energy. This system can be used at domestic level as well as at the high
industrial level. We are implementing the piezoelectric stacks in the soles of shoes in order to harness
the energy produced from the human body’s weight.

SPECIFIC APPLICATION:
 Retrieving energy from the piezoelectric material embedded in the base of a human shoe.
 The weight and pressure exerted by the human while walking, running or standing will create enough
energy to charge the battery.
 Men in the army patrol wide areas irrespective of the freezing weather or the extremely hot desert
climate. They have to guard their country’s border at all times.
 This project aims at banking on the energy produced while they are patrolling the border by
embedding piezoelectric materials in their shoes.
 This can be used in cases of emergency, for example: if a soldier gets stuck in snow or an avalanche
and he runs out of power to feed his emergency devices to contact his comrades, the energy obtained
from the piezoelectric materials incorporated in the shoe will be used to power emergency signaling
devices (mobile phones, transceiver, gps system).

Fig.2 Applications

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 5. Fabrication of the drum harvesters
Commercially available buzzer elements were chosen as the circular piezoelectric diaphragms for fabrication of
the drum harvesters. Each drum harvester is made of two discs which are adhered to a steel ring. The thicknesses
of the PZT disc and the brass substrate are approximately the same (250/200 microns for the 35/27 mm piezo
disc). Table 2 gives the dimensions of the parts used to make the drum harvesters. The adherent material used is
a synthetic rubber based adhesive (Fevibond) which provides excellent bonding between different material
surfaces in the stack like between rubber and metal, metal and metal and also provides a degree of flexibility to
the entire structure. The bonding was excellent and at no time during the testing was it found to deteriorate.
Diameter of Diameter of Thickness of Thickness of Steel ring
metal substrate piezo disc (mm) metal substrate piezo disc (mm) ID/OD (mm)
(mm) (mm)
27 20 0.20 0.20 (23, 24, 25)/27
35 25 0.25 0.25 (31, 32, 33)/35
Table 1. Piezo Disc Comparisons

Fig 3. The drum harvesters with attached electrodes.

Wires were soldered to each drum harvester to act as positive and negative leads. All types of wires used are
multistrand copper wires.

Fig 4. The drum harvesters with rubber discs adhered to them.

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To couple the force generated from the heel strike and forefoot strike to the stacks, each drum harvester has a
rubber disc (Fig 4) centrally adhered to the piezo elements (using the same adhesive) on both sides. This acts to
couple the force to the active material as well as preventing damage to the discs. The rubber discs also act as
damping elements and together with the air gap in each drum harvester, act as a spring mechanism providing the
restoring force during toe off phase.

Fig 5. The stack made using drum harvesters.

The stacks are made of drum harvesters using two sizes of piezo buzzer elements (flexural discs, Fig 1), their
diameters being 35mm and 27mm respectively. Three drum harvesters have been used in the bigger stack
(embedded in the heel) and two in the smaller one (embedded under the ball of the foot). The stacks weigh
approximately 30gm and 10gm respectively. A total of 6 discs were used in the larger stack and 4 in the smaller
one.

Fig. 6. Construction of drum harvesters

Wires were soldered to each drum harvester to act as positive and negative leads. All types of wires used are multi-strand
copper wires. To couple the force generated from the heel strike and forefoot strike to the stacks, each drum harvester has
a rubber disc (Fig 4) centrally adhered to the piezo elements (using the same adhesive) on both sides. This acts to couple
the force to the active material as well as preventing damage to the discs. The rubber discs also act as damping elements
and together with the air gap in each drum harvester, act as a spring mechanism providing the restoring force during toe off
phase.

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 6. Construction of shoe harvesters
Two shoe-based harvester models were constructed. In Model 1, the energy harvesting stacks were embedded in
the heel and forefoot of standard army DMS shoes as shown in figure . The first experiment to gauge the output
of the shoe harvesters consisted of connecting the output of the shoes directly to a standard interface circuit
consisting of a bridge rectifier (employing schottky diodes SR100), a capacitor and a variable resistive load and
recording the output voltage. The same procedure was followed with a MOSFET bridge rectifier employing
MOSFET IC FDS4559. A commercially available solution was also tested in the form of energy harvesting IC
LTC 3588-2.

Figure 7. DMS shoes with energy harvesting stacks embedded in the heel and forefoot sections.

Model 2 employed an arrangement of individual drum harvesters in the heel and forefoot sections of
commercially available sports shoes.
The model 2 for piezoelectric energy harvester consists of a shoe insole made of flexible material from a
Polycarbonate sheet of thickness 2mm. After shaping the polycarbonate sheet in the form of a shoe insole, the
position of maximum pressure under the feet are identified using Pedobarography images of the feet. The
positions of maximal pressure areas were identified, and single stack drums of piezoelectric material were placed
at the maximum pressure areas under the feet.

Fig.8 Insole Model

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The drums were made my gluing together two piezoelectric circular discs using synthetic glue. Rubber drums
were also glued on the top and bottom in order to provide rigidity and flexibility to the model. The out-coming
wires from the piezoelectric drums were checked for polarity and marked accordingly. Depending on the shape
of the foot, three drums(27mm) were placed on the rear part of the sole and Five drums(35mm) were placed on
the front part of the sole. The same polarity wires were held together in place using plastic glue hot gun, and taken
out from the base properly.

7. Data Acquisition
Measurement of the voltage signals across the output capacitor of the LTC circuit and charging of NiMH batteries
was done using DAQ card (NI cDAQ 9174).The complete data acquisition system consisted of NI cDaq 9174,
input module NI9234, laptop and a USB interface for connecting cDaq to the laptop. Labview was used as the
interfacing platform between the cDaq 9174 and the laptop that is used for recording and processing the voltage
trends across the battery. The VI that was constructed to record the output voltage of the LTC circuit is show in
figure 6.

Fig.9 Block diagram of VI developed in Labview to measure output voltage.

NiMH batteries of three different capacities (22 mAh, 70 mAh, 160 mAh) were charged using standard interface
circuit with the shoe harvesters. The output voltages across a resistive load were recorded using a data logger
(DMM Series 60k by Rishabh Instruments, India).

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 8. Charging of batteries
Model 1
NiMH batteries of 3 different capacities were charged using the shoe-based harvesters coupled with the standard circuit
which consisted of a schottky bridge rectifier (employing diode SR110) and 4700uF capacitor output capacitor. The reason
behind using just the standard interface circuit is that NiMH batteries don’t require voltage regulation. The following figures
show the charging curves of the batteries.

Fig.10 Model 1, 22mah battery

Fig.11 Model 1, 70mah battery

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 Fig.12 Model 1, 160mah battery

Model 2

Fig.13 Model 2, 22mah battery

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 Fig.14 Model 2, 70mah battery

Fig.15 Model 2, 160mah battery

Table 2. Battery charging comparison

Shoe Model Battery(mah) Initial Voltage(V) Final Voltage(V) Time(Mins)

22 mah 1.5 4.47 30
Model 1 70 mah 2 4.04 69
160 mah 2.4 3.63 24
22 mah 1.1 4.601 14
Model 2 70 mah 0.8 4 35
160 mah 15 3.6 20

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 9. Application
Batteryless Transmitter
The RF module, as the name suggests, operates at Radio Frequency. The corresponding frequency range varies
between 30 kHz & 300 GHz. In this RF system, the digital data is represented as variations in the amplitude of
carrier wave. This kind of modulation is known as Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK).
Transmission through RF is better than IR (infrared) because of many reasons. Firstly, signals through RF can
travel through larger distances making it suitable for long range applications. Also, while IR mostly operates in
line-of-sight mode, RF signals can travel even when there is an obstruction between transmitter & receiver. Next,
RF transmission is more strong and reliable than IR transmission. RF communication uses a specific frequency
unlike IR signals which are affected by other IR emitting sources.

Fig.16 Transmitter, Receiver pin out

This RF module comprises of an RF Transmitter and an RF Receiver. The transmitter/receiver (Tx/Rx) pair
operates at a frequency of 434 MHz. An RF transmitter receives serial data and transmits it wirelessly through
RF through its antenna connected at pin4. The transmission occurs at the rate of 1Kbps - 10Kbps.The transmitted
data is received by an RF receiver operating at the same frequency as that of the transmitter.
The RF module is often used along with a pair of encoder/decoder. The encoder is used for encoding parallel data
for transmission feed while reception is decoded by a decoder. HT12E-HT12D, HT640-HT648, etc. are some
commonly used encoder/decoder pair ICs.
Features

 Receiver works between 3 - 5V

 Transmitter works between 3 -12V7

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 Range - 500 feet range in open space. The transmitter operates from 3-12V. The higher the Voltage, the greater the
range
 Working Frequency – 434 Mhz

Related ICs

 HT12E Encoder IC - Use this IC with the RF Module to transmit 4 bits of wireless data
 HT12D Decoder IC - Use this IC with the RF Module receive data transmitted from the HT12E IC

Pin Description:
RF Transmitter

Pin No Function Name

1 Ground (0V) Ground
2 Serial data input pin Data
3 Supply voltage; 5V Vcc
4 Antenna output pin ANT

RF Receiver

Pin No Function Name

1 Ground (0V) Ground
2 Serial data output pin Data
3 Linear output pin; not connected NC
4 Supply voltage; 5V Vcc
5 Supply voltage; 5V Vcc
6 Ground (0V) Ground
7 Ground (0V) Ground
8 Antenna input pin ANT

Result: The RF link transmitter has been successfully tested for a range of 85 meters approx. with the stack on
the transmitter side serving as the power source.

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9. References
[1]. Yehoshua Perl, Loizos Gabriel, Arithmetic Interpolation Search for Alphabet Tables, IEEE Transactions on
Computers, v.41 n.4, p.493-499, April 1992
[2] http://www.eeweb.com/blog/extreme_circuits/power-mosfet-bridge-rectifier
[3] http://www.edn.com/design/components-and-packaging/4314989/MOSFETs-Increased-Efficiency-In-
Bridge-Rectifiers
[4] Piezoelectricity: walk, jump, dance, and generate electricity! Posted August 1, 2012. Social
Media/Technology, Consumer Instinct. Accessed April 29, 2014.
http://www.consumerinstinct.com/piezoelectricity-walk-jump-dance-and-generate-electricity/
[5] BIJIT - BVICAM’s International Journal of Information Technology Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of
Computer Applications and Management (BVICAM), New Delhi Copy Right © BIJIT – 2010; July – December,
2010; Vol. 2 No. 2; ISSN 0973 – 5658 265 Energy Harvesting via Piezoelectricity Tanvi Dikshit1, Dhawal
Shrivastava2, Abhijeet Gorey3, Ashish Gupta4, Parag Parandkar5 and Sumant Katiyal6
[6] Ahola J, Särkimäki V, Ahonen T, Kosonen A, Tiainen R, Lindh T., “Design considerations of energy
harvesting wireless sensors for condition monitoring of electronic motors, Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Condition
Monitoring & Machinery Failure Prevention Technologies 15–18 July 2008, Edinburgh, UK.
[7] Roundy S., Wright P. K. and Rabaye J., "A. study of low level vibrations as a power source for wireless sensor
nodes", Computer Communications 26 (2003) 1131–1144.

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