| Abstract [eng] |
The purpose of this project is to develop a portable energy harvesting device and analyse its potential from both a theoretical and a simulation standpoint, the latter involving modelling and designing. The project begins with a review of different energy-harvesting methods and several existing applications. Then, a chapter about the effects of piezoelectric materials and their properties is given. This chapter introduces theoretical terms describing piezoelectric materials, simulates several piezoelectric materials, compares substrate materials, and chooses the appropriate material for this study. After that, several prototypes are designed and simulated in computational fluid-dynamics software to evaluate the wind-flow performance and select the prototype that gives high output velocity of wind flow. This is followed by a description of the control unit and storage system used in this thesis and their advantages. Finally, the complete energy-harvesting device, including the piezoelectric cantilever beam, control unit, and storage system, are introduced. In conclusions are presented received research results. |
