International Journal on Mechanical Engineering and Robotics (IJMER)

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Design and Analysis of Power Generating Tiles

1
Siddesh Siddappa D, 2Shaikh Aatif Ahmed
1
Thakur College of Engineering and Technology, Kandivali Mumbai, 400101,
2
M.H.Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, Byculla , Mumbai
Email: [email protected]

common applications include sensors on electric guitars

Abstract: Walking is the most common activity in
human life. When a person walks, he delivers energy to the like pick-ups and contact microphones, ultrasound
road surface in the form of impact, vibration, sound etc., machines, sonar wave detection and generation devices,
due to the transfer of his weight on to the road surface, engine management systems in cars, loudspeakers, fuel
through foot falls on the ground during every step. This injectors for diesel engines and quartz clocks In this
energy can be tapped and converted in the usable form such case the main concept is to convert mechanical energy
as in electrical form. In order to develop a technique to into electrical energy gaining higher electrical
harness footstep energy, we are developing a foot step generation. The control mechanism carries the
electricity generating device. piezoelectric sensor, A.C. ripples neutralizer,
This device, if embedded in the footpath, can convert foot unidirectional current controller and 12V, 1.3 Amp lead
impact energy into electrical form. The working principle acid dc rechargeable battery and an inverter is used to
is, when pedestrian steps on the top plate of the device, the drive AC/DC loads. Every time a person steps on the
plate will dip down slightly due to the weight of the mats, they trigger a small vibration that can be stored as
pedestrian. The downward movement of the plate results in energy. An average person, weighing 60 kg, will generate
compression of the piezoelectric material fitted in the
only 0.1 watt in the single second required to take two
device, to produce electrical energy.
steps across the tile. But when we are covering a large
The device was operated by persons walking over to it. area of floor space and thousands of people are stepping
However, if there is continuous movement of pedestrians or jumping on them, then we can generate significant
over the device, a large amount of power will be produced. amounts of power. Stored in capacitors, the power can be
In this research a prototype of the power generating tiles is channeled to energy-hungry parts of the station such as
developed and studied under varying loading conditions to the electrical lighting system and the ticket gates..
investigate the feasibility of the technology.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Index Terms — Power generating tiles Piezoelectric,
renewable energy. One of the earliest practical applications of piezoelectric
materials was the development of the first SONAR
I. INTRODUCTION system in 1917 by Langevin who used quartz to transmit
In this project we are generating electrical power as and receive ultrasonic waves [1]. One study used lead
non-conventional method by simply walking or running zirconate titanate (PZT) wafers and flexible, multilayer
on the foot step. Human-powered transport has been in polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films inside shoes to
existence since time immemorial in the form of walking, convert mechanical walking energy into usable electrical
running and swimming. This project uses piezoelectric energy [2]. This system has been proposed for mobile
sensor. Simply stated, piezoelectric materials are crystals computing and was ultimately able to provide
that generate electricity when compressed or vibrated. continuously 1.3 mW at 3 V when walking at a rate of
They have the unique opposite property of generating a 0.8 Hz [3].Other projects have used piezoelectric films to
stress when voltage is applied to them. Due to extract electrical energy from mechanical vibration in
advancements in micro-electronic systems many machines to power MEMS devices. This work extracted a
consumer devices have decreased in size. Smaller very small amount of power (<5 micro W) from the
electronic systems require less power to operate. As a vibration and no attempt was made to condition or store
result, solid-state multilayer piezoelectric generators the energy [4].
have become a feasible power source for some Similar work has extracted slightly more energy (=70
applications. Current applications for multilayer piezo
micro W) from machine and building vibrations
generators are energy sources for munitions and wireless
Piezoelectric materials have also been studied to generate
sensors, such as sensors that monitor tire pressure in
electricity from pressure variations in micro hydraulic
automobiles. One of the most common applications ofsystems [5].Recently a piezo electric tile capable of
piezoelectricity is in the electric cigarette lighter. Other
producing 40 V was devised and studied.[6]
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III. PROBLEM STATEMENT

Proposal for the utilization of waste energy of foot power
with human locomotion is very much relevant and
important for highly populated countries like India and
China where the roads, railway stations, bus stands,
temples, etc. are all over crowded and millions of people
move around the clock. Using piezoelectric to harvest
vibration energy from humans walking, machinery
vibrating, or cars moving on a roadway is an area of great
interest, because this vibration energy is otherwise Figure 2. Mode of operation
untapped. Since movement is everywhere, the ability to
capture this energy cheaply would be a significant V. ANALYSIS
advancement toward greater efficiency and cleaner As we know the pressure is directly proportional to
energy production amount of power generated P α Wt. Here we take the
IV. MODE OF OPERATION constant of proportionality as Қ, then the equation
becomes
Fig. 1 shows the system model of the power generation
and storage. When load is applied on the tile surface P = Қ Wt , Where, Қ- Constant of proportionality,
(blue) refer fig: 2 it moves in the downward direction. Wt-weight

 The projections on the tile surface come in contact with P- Power. We know that for Wt=50kg, we get the value of
the piezo material (yellow) and hence apply force on it. voltage V=4v and I =0.015A, Then
P=V*I=4*0.015=0.06w, means we can say that for 50kg
 The applied force produces stresses inside piezo we get power (P) =0.06w
material which will produce current.
From this we can find the value of Қ
 There is clearance of 0.5cm in between the springs
Table I. Relation between P & Wt
(golden) and tile surface (blue) in order to provide free
deflection. Sr No P ( watt) Wt ( kg)
1 0.012 10
 The spring (golden) is provided for stability as well as
protecting the piezo material (yellow) from getting 2 0.024 20
damage by excess load applied. 3 0.06 50
4 0.09 75
The base plate indicated in green color is fitted inside the
frame (grey) firmly to provide support to piezo material
while compression. Figure 8. shows the structure of Қ=P/Wt=0.06/50=0.0012 .Table No.1 given above shows
power generating tile. Table No.III gives Specification the relation between P & Wt. Fig 9. Shows the
of batteries arrangement of piezo electric cells. Fig.10. shows the
working prototype of power generating tile.
A. Varying Clearance VS Output Voltage:
The clearance verses o/p voltage graphs provide us with
the result that, different loads required different values of
clearance to achieve maximum voltage. The value of
optimum clearance is 8.27mm. Figure 3 shows Varying
clearance VS output voltage graphs.
B. Static Load Vs Output Voltage graphs:
Static load graph for 2sec has the highest slope and the
slope gradually decreases with the increase in duration of
application of load. The value of maximum attainable
Figure 1. Power generation and storage model. static voltage is 4.1v. Figure 4 shows static load Vs
output voltage graphs.
C. Dynamic Loading:
The dynamic loading graph Fig. 5 to 7 gives the variation
of output voltage over varying time period. The
maximum attained output voltage in dynamic loading is
3.79v.

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4.5
4 5 Dynamic Load of 65kg

O/p Voltage(v)
3.5
O/p voltage(v)

3
25kg Load
2.5
2 35kg Load
0
1.5
45kg Load 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4
1
Time(sec)…
0.5
0 Figure 7. Output Voltage for the Dynamic load of 65Kg
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415 VI. VALIDATION AND TESTING
Clearance(mm)
Figure 3. Varying Clearance VS Output Voltage graphs When the foot is placed on the tile the kinetic energy of
the footstep is transferred to the piezo material. It then
produces low voltage D.C. current which can directly be
5 measured by multimeter. The D.C. current is then stored
in a battery. As D.C. voltage cannot be used for powering
4 an A.C. bulb, we create an inverter circuit to convert D.C.
For 2sec
O/p voltage(v)

3 to A.C. It is connected to a transformer from which the

For 3sec appliance gets its power. Table No.II. gives the properties
2 of piezo sensors
For 4sec
1 VII. RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS AND
0 FUTURE WORK
Load(kg) Electricity is produced due to pressing the piezo material
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
enough to make the L.E.D. glow. Based on the results
Figure 4. Static Load Vs Output Voltage graphs. gathered in this investigation, the final prototype design
This value of voltage is obtained for just a fraction of a do fulfil the engineering goal of generating electricity
second and varies continuously sufficient to power common electrical devices such as
mobile phones.
4
Dynamic Load of 55kg Power generation is simply walking on the step. Power
also generated by running or exercising on the step. No
O/p voltage(v)

3 need fuel input .This is a Non-conventional system.

Battery is used to store the generated power.
2 This is applicable only for the particular place.
Mechanical moving parts are high. Initial cost of this
1 arrangement is high. Care should be taken for batteries.
0 Foot step power can be used for agricultural, home
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Time(sec)
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 applications, street-lighting. Foot step power generation
can be used in emergency power failure situations.
at Optimum Clearance Metros, Rural applications, etc. This can be used for
Figure 5.Output Voltage for the Dynamic load of 55Kg. many applications in rural areas where power availability
is less or totally absent as India is a developing country
Dynamic Load of 60kg where energy management is a big challenge for huge
5 population. By this project we can drive both A.C. as well
4 as D.C. loads according to the force we applied on the
piezo electric sensor.
O/p voltage(v)

3
More research is underway to increase the efficiency,
2 optimality and durability of the device under varying
conditions and for the suitability of the technology for the
1 mass deployment and commercialization of the
0 equipments.
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4
Time(sec)
at Optimum Clearance
Figure 6. Output Voltage for the Dynamic load of 60Kg.
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REFERENCES
[1] K. F. Graff, “A history of ultrasonic,” in Phys.
Acoust.. New York: Academic, vol. 15, ch. 1.
1981.
[2] J. Kymissis, C. Kendall, J. J. Paradiso, and N.
Gershenfeld, “Parasitic power harvesting in
shoes,” in Proc. 2nd IEEE Int. Conf.Wearable
Computing, Los Alamitos, CA, pp. 132–139.
Aug. 1998.
[3] N. S. Shenck and J. A. Paradiso, “Energy
scavenging with shoe-mounted piezo electrics,”
IEEE Micro, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 30–42, May-Jun. Figure 9. Arrangement of piezo electric cells on the
2001. working model

[4] P. Glynne-Jones, S. P. Beeby, and N. M. White,

“Towards a piezoelectric vibration-powered
micro generator,” IEE Proc. Sci. Meas. Technol.,
vol. 148, no. 2, pp. 68–72, 2001.
[5] S. Roundy, “The power of good vibrations,” Lab
Notes-Research from the College of Engineering,
University of California, Berkeley, vol. 2, no. 1,
Jan. 2002.
[6] kiran Boby, Aneela Paul K. et all, “The footstep
power generation using piezo electric
transducers,” International Journal of Engineering
and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) Volume 3,
Issue 10, April 2014. Figure 10. Working prototype of power generating tile
Table No. II. Properties of piezo sensors
VIII. APPENDIX Properties Values
RESONANT FREQUENCY 3.3 ± 0.5kHz
RESONANT IMPEDANCE 300 OHM max
STATIC CAPACITANCE 30nf ± 30% at
100Hz
ALLOWABLE INPUT 30 Vp-pmax
VOLTAGE
OPERATING TEMPERATURE -20°C ~ 70°C
RANGE
PLATE DIAMETER D=20 ± 0.1mm
CERAMIC DISC DIAMETER d=15 ± 0.3mm
PLATE THICKNESS t=0.10 ±
0.03mm
TOTAL THICKNESS T=0.22 ±
0.05mm
Figure 8. Structure of power generating tile. PLATE MATERIAL Brass
Table No.III Specification of batteries
Model RB405
Function VRLA Battery
Dimensions 80*70*105mm(L*w*H)
Rated 4V 0.5AH
Capacity

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