PIEZOELECTRIC TILES

(FEASIBILITY)

Guided by, BY,

Dr Shirish Vichare SALMAAN PATEL (G049)
SOHAIL GHETA (G075)

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INTRODUCTION
 Renewable and clean energy resources have become a demanded research area due to the problems facing energy shortage and environmental
concerns using fossil fuel resources. The world electricity demand will increase by almost 80% during the period of 2012-2040 in the (IEA)
International Energy Agency’s New Policies Scenario.
 The IEA believes that clean energy revolution is an essential need for the world in order to break dependence on fossil fuels. Such a revolution
would enhance global energy security, promote Continuance of economic growth and tackle environmental challenges such as climate change.
 It would break the long-standing link between economic growth and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Energy harvesting technologies demand is
growing as we continue to seek out greener and more efficient solutions. Like a wind generator or solar cells.
 Piezoelectricity is also a type of technology used for electrical energy harvesting from mechanical pressure such as walking motion. Piezoelectric
Energy harvesting floor as a sustainable clean energy is generating a usable electricity depending on people footsteps pressure, this valuable
energy is wasted in spite of its available clean source (human movement).
 Public spaces piezoelectric floors can scavenge a reasonable amount of energy that can power electrical devices like lighting and screens.
However, private offices or residential spaces are varying to use this technology due to the infeasible usage of the harvested amount of energy.
 Piezoelectric Energy has been applied in limited projects, opposed to the most widespread Renewable energy resources. The main factors
that effect on piezoelectric technology usage are output power per step, battery storage, cost, consumption facility, number of users, distribution of
high frequency walking areas and the method of utilizing this technology to get the optimal saving energy results, needing power to be used as
main power or as a sensor triggering to manage the small amount of power needed to Locate users and direct a sufficient amount of power that
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THE AIM OF THIS REPORT

 It is reaching a guide as a tool for architecture & interior architecture designers to facilitate embedding this
technology in their designs as a part of the demanded low energy consumption in the buildings. In addition,
 Utilizing piezoelectric technology as a clean energy which conserve environment and reduce CO2
emissions that produced form the fuel recourses
 Saving energy consumption and direct the surplus toward investment
 Reducing electricity bill for the consumers and reach lower price category of electricity consumption.

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PEST ANALYSIS (STEEPLE)

 Societal : The population is growing increasingly and the demand for electricity is increasing as well. Collecting
energy from human locomotion will be adaptable to such societal needs.
 Technology : Piezoelectric tiles/floors will help in developing technology inside the country.
 Environment : Piezoelectric tiles have no harm on the environment.
 Ethical : Natural source of collecting energy and do not harm the nature.
 Political : The needs for electricity are growing and they won't be enough for the next generations and collecting
energy from human daily motion ensure present and future human needs for electricity.
 Legal : Renewed tiles has no harm to human nor to nature, so could it be useful to everybody.
 Economical : Piezoelectric tiles/ floors is saving energy for later usage and in parallel it is making important
savings.
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PIEZOELECTRIC EFFECT

 A unique property of the material which has the ability to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy i.e. vibration to
electricity. This effect is naturally found in Quartz but compared to this the energy harvesting is more advantageous in Lead
Zinconated Titanate (PZT). This effect makes them excellent power generators.
 This mechanism of producing electricity from these piezoelectric material is called Piezoelectric Effect.
 There are two Piezoelectric Effects:

 1. DIRECT EFFECT - The direct effect (designated as a generator) is identified with the phenomenon whereby electrical charge

(polarization) is generated from a mechanical stress. It is the property of the material to develop electric charge on the material
when mechanical stress is applied on it.
 Ex: found in gas lighters, PE sensors like acceleration sensors, pressure sensors.

 2. CONVERSE EFFECT – The converse effect (designated as a motor) is associated with the mechanical movement generated

by the application of an electrical field. It is the property of the material to develop mechanical stress when an electric charge is
6 induced. Ex: Buzzers, PE actuators used for micro positioning also rely on inverse piezoelectric effect. Therefore, piezoelectric 6

energy harvesting is to use the direct effect (generator).

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BLOCK DIAGRAM

 A Piezoelectric material when strained produces electricity i.e. the mechanical vibration, pressure applied on the material is
converted into electricity.
 Therefore these crystals are connected in series in order to increase the voltage and connected in parallel to increase the
current so as to meet the required generation of electricity.
 The output of Piezo is AC which is converted into DC using a Bridge rectifier, and then this is stored in a Storage capacitor.
Storage capacitor is connected to battery via Charge switching relay.
 For this relay to operate, a Relay driver circuit is used, which acts as a current amplifier. Block Diagram from the Relay
Driver circuit the output voltage is stored in a two Lead acid battery of 6V, connected in series.
 This is used because it’s cheaper, easily disposable, long life it doesn’t require maintenance. The stored voltage in the battery
is used to power both AC and DC load.
 The DC load used here is mobile charger. Arduino Board is a ready-made circuit used to connect the dc power into USB
power supply.
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HARDWARE SPECIFICATION:

 Piezoelectric Crystal Material

 Bridge Rectifier
 Switch
 Amplifier
 Battery
 LED’s
 Volt Meter
 Arduino Uno

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MATERIAL PROPERTY

 The material must be rigid and capable of being parallel to the horizontal plane.
 The material must be in its elastic region of its stress strain curve. To prove a material is in its elastic region after
weights are removed, the material must return to parallel to the horizontal plane.
 The deflection must be much smaller than the width of the material.
 The material must be fixed.

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METHOD OF OPERATION

 The system generates voltage using footstep force. The system serves as a medium to generate electricity using
non-conventional sources (force) and /store/use it. The project is designed to be useful at public places like
railway stations where a lot of people keep walking through all day.
 At such places these systems are to be placed at any entry points where people travel through entrance or exits
and they have to step on this device to get through.
 These devices may then generate a voltage on every footstep and when mounted in series they will produce a
sizeable amount of electricity.
 For this purpose we here use piezoelectric sensors that use piezoelectric effect in order to measure acceleration,
force, and pressure by its conversion into electric signals.
 We here attach a voltmeter in order to measure its output and small led lights for demonstration.
We also use a battery for better demonstration of the system.

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 CALCULATION FOR NUMBER OF PIEZO REQUIRED

One Piezo generates 2.8V and 20mA. If 5 such Piezo’s are connected in series then voltage developed is =2.8*5
=14V(20mA) To increase the current value, 5 series connected Piezo’s has to be connected in parallel.
Therefore 6 such parallel connections has to be done I=6*20m =120Ma
Total number of Piezo material required is 6*5=30 crystals. In a 370mm*200mm mat we used 30 Piezo’s. As the
voltage developed by Piezo varies with the pressure applied, minimum and maximum voltages obtained are as
follows. Generate a voltage of 13.56V in time span Minimum voltage developed = 1.1V per Step. Maximum voltage
developed = 2.8V per Step.
We took an average weight of 60Kg’s pressure from a single person, the output voltage developed are as shown in the
calculation below
Calculation: Voltage developed = Voltage per Step * No. of Steps
= 1.13 * 12
= 13.56V
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Therefore it took 12 Steps to of 10.46 seconds. The above procedure was repeated for different load values and the 14

readings are as shown in the table below,

 LOAD 11KΩ 22KΩ 44KΩ

Voltage 13.6 13.6 13.6

Charging time in sec 10.46 9.42 13

Discharging time in sec 4.88 7.95 13.95

No. of step 12 12 15

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ADVANTAGES

 This is a green solution for power generation.

 Piezoelectric material can be made in any desired shape and form.
 It has no moving parts, hence long service life.
 Ultra-low noise.
 Easy replacement of equipment.
 Cost efficient.

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DISADVANTAGES

 Piezoelectric crystal is prone to crack if overstressed.

 Change in Humidity affects the output power generated.
 May get affected by long use at high temperature.

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 CONCLUSION:

 Today’s demands of electricity is becoming too high due to the growth of population. All sorts of renewable engineering
technologies are trying to extract energy from natural sources. However, as we stated at the beginning, this capstone project does
not harm any natural source, in contrast energy is collected from the human locomotion and translated into electricity stored in
batteries to later uses. This project should be wisely implemented in places like gymnasiums, markets, dance floors and most
frequented streets.
 In this project a model for energy harvesting system using piezoelectric materials have been presented. Piezoelectric are smart
materials that can be used to harvest energy from dynamic vibrational sources. It is evident that harnessing energy through
piezoelectric materials provides a cleaner way of powering lighting systems and other equipment or stored for later use. It is a
new approach to lead the world into implementing greener technologies that are aimed at protecting the environment.
Piezoelectric energy harvesting systems are a onetime instalment and they require very less maintenance, making them cost
efficient. Further experimentation has to be carried out for its implementation on a larger scale, with an efficient interface circuit
at a low cost in universities. Research is being conducted to enhance current piezoelectric materials and to develop new
materials.
 The project is successfully tested and implemented which is the best economical, affordable energy solution to common people.
This can be used for many applications in rural areas where power availability is less or totally absence As India is a developing
country where energy management is a big challenge for huge population. By using this project we can drive both A.C. as well as18
18 D.C loads according to the force we apply on the piezoelectric sensor.
REFERENCES

 [1] Ecosecurity Energy Harvesting Using Piezoelectric Crystal by A. Kumar Govind, Student Member, IEEE, B.
Anil Pahwa, Fellow IEEE, C. Nimika Aggarwal,
 [2]Damjanovic, Dragan (1998). "Ferroelectric, dielectric and piezoelectric Properties of ferroelectric thin films
and ceramics"
 [3] V.J. Lauardini, Heat Transfer in Cold Climates (Van Nostrand, New York)
 [4] T.R. Goodman, The heat balance integral and its application in problems involving a change. J. Sol. Energy
Eng. Trans.
 [5] An Inductorless Self-Controlled Rectifier for Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting by Shaohua Lu and
FaridBoussaid from University of Western Australia 2015

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