Small Scale Energy Harvesting Using Piezoelectric Tiles

The increased reliance on the electric grid causes susceptibility to cyber attacks, power outages, and environmental impacts. Amidst these growing concerns, finding alternative energy harvesting sources that are sustainable is key to reducing dependency on the traditional grid infrastructure. This research explores detecting energy from piezoelectricity, an energy harvesting source, and sufficient energy is determined through whether a mini-LED lights up. A piezoelectric tile was developed to convert mechanical stress into electric voltage. By connecting the components to an Arduino Uno and programming it to read the voltage output (VO) through Arduino IDE, a threshold was established for activating the LED based on the VO. With the device, two experiments were conducted: the first analyzed the VO in response to increasing dumbbell weights applied to the tile’s center, whereas the second focused on the effects of the displacement of a fixed weight away from the tile’s center. The first experiment’s results indicate a directly proportional, but logarithmic, relationship between the variables, with low standard deviations and error bars establishing high consistency in the data. Conversely, the weight’s displacement and the VO maintain an exponential decay relationship, supported by similarly low variability in the data. While the device operates on a smaller scale, the fundamental ideas of piezoelectricity exhibited hold potential for larger-scale applications in the future if further research and materials are developed. Yet, the project showcases a possible pathway for reducing the demand on our grid and promoting sustainable energy harvesting solutions.