Design and implementation of a new contactless triple piezoelectrics wind energy harvester

Abstract The features of the new designed and constructed harvester are examined. The harvested power of three piezoelectric layers having different masses (i.e. different natural frequencies) has been explored. These layers have the same length around the harvester body, whereas a permanent magnet (PM) attached to the shaft rotates by low speed wind and this PM repels these three piezoelectric layers with a 120° phase shift. Since PM and the PMs located to the tip of the layers do not contact, this system improves the lifetime of the harvester. The measured harvested power in the low wind speeds (i.e. 1.75 m/s) is of the order of 0.2 μW. The waveform includes many subharmonic and superharmonic components, hence the total harmonic distortion (THD) is found around 130%, which is fairly high due to nonlinear effects. Although the system shows an high THD, the 20% of the signal can be rectified and stored in the capacitor for the use of harvested energy. A scenario has also been created for a resistive load of RL = 1 MΩ and 100 kΩ for various wind speeds and it has been proven that the harvester can feed the load at even lower wind speeds. In addition, extra power beyond the usage of the load can be stored into the capacitor. The proposed harvester and its rectifying unit can be a good solution for the energy conversion procedures of low-power required machines.