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Archimedes' water fountain; a water droplet energy harvesting system utilising piezoelectric spiral transducers

Archimedes' water fountain; a water droplet energy harvesting system utilising piezoelectric spiral transducers
Archimedes' water fountain; a water droplet energy harvesting system utilising piezoelectric spiral transducers
The arithmetic, or Archimedean spiral, was originally described by the Greek mathematician, Archimedes. In this research, the design, characterisation and fabrication of piezoelectric transducers inspired by double-armed Archimedean spirals for harvesting water droplet impact energy is presented. Such designs present a highly tuneable, self-supporting structure with multiple degrees of freedom, encouraging high sensitivity to droplet impact. It was found that spiral designs with droplet impact area bending stiffness within the range 7.9–9.9 N m−1 produced the highest peak energy outputs. However, samples with lower bending stiffness produced a greater average energy output, highlighting the significant influence of geometry design on energy transfer efficiency. A tiered tank system is presented which collects an input volume of water, before dispensing this water as a series of frequency and diameter regulated droplets onto the impact energy harvesting spirals. Controlling such aspects significantly increases system efficiency—a total energy output of 58.9 μJ was generated by a single spiral transducer arm driven by 1 L of water dispensed as droplets of 6 mm diameter, 1 m release height and impact frequency 0–40 Hz, representing an energy density of 16 mJ cm−2.
droplet, energy harvesting, piezoelectric, spiral, transducer, water
0964-1726
Jellard, Samuel C.J.
2897d56d-c8aa-4a38-91c9-d5db54c71a90
Pu, Suan-Hui
8b46b970-56fd-4a4e-8688-28668f648f43
White, Neil M.
c7be4c26-e419-4e5c-9420-09fc02e2ac9c
Jellard, Samuel C.J.
2897d56d-c8aa-4a38-91c9-d5db54c71a90
Pu, Suan-Hui
8b46b970-56fd-4a4e-8688-28668f648f43
White, Neil M.
c7be4c26-e419-4e5c-9420-09fc02e2ac9c

Jellard, Samuel C.J., Pu, Suan-Hui and White, Neil M. (2020) Archimedes' water fountain; a water droplet energy harvesting system utilising piezoelectric spiral transducers. Smart Materials and Structures, 29 (1), [015002]. (doi:10.1088/1361-665X/ab5015).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The arithmetic, or Archimedean spiral, was originally described by the Greek mathematician, Archimedes. In this research, the design, characterisation and fabrication of piezoelectric transducers inspired by double-armed Archimedean spirals for harvesting water droplet impact energy is presented. Such designs present a highly tuneable, self-supporting structure with multiple degrees of freedom, encouraging high sensitivity to droplet impact. It was found that spiral designs with droplet impact area bending stiffness within the range 7.9–9.9 N m−1 produced the highest peak energy outputs. However, samples with lower bending stiffness produced a greater average energy output, highlighting the significant influence of geometry design on energy transfer efficiency. A tiered tank system is presented which collects an input volume of water, before dispensing this water as a series of frequency and diameter regulated droplets onto the impact energy harvesting spirals. Controlling such aspects significantly increases system efficiency—a total energy output of 58.9 μJ was generated by a single spiral transducer arm driven by 1 L of water dispensed as droplets of 6 mm diameter, 1 m release height and impact frequency 0–40 Hz, representing an energy density of 16 mJ cm−2.

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Archimedes' water fountain; a water droplet energy harvesting system utilising piezoelectric spiral transducers - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 22 October 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 November 2019
Published date: January 2020
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Keywords: droplet, energy harvesting, piezoelectric, spiral, transducer, water

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 437230
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437230
ISSN: 0964-1726
PURE UUID: 96b67d2c-eec4-4252-b4ae-208dd469c62b
ORCID for Suan-Hui Pu: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3335-8880
ORCID for Neil M. White: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1532-6452

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Jan 2020 17:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:14

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Contributors

Author: Samuel C.J. Jellard
Author: Suan-Hui Pu ORCID iD
Author: Neil M. White ORCID iD

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