Energy Harvesting from Human Motion Using Footstep-Induced Airflow
Name
Fu_2015_J._Phys.__Conf._Ser._660_012060.pdf
Size
2.46 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Fu, H
Yeatman, E M
Seto, Kelsey C.
Kim, Sang-Gook
Xu, Ruize
Date Issued
December 2015
Journal
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Fu, H, R Xu, K Seto, E M Yeatman, and S G Kim. “Energy Harvesting from Human Motion Using Footstep-Induced Airflow.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series 660 (December 10, 2015): 012060. © 2019 IOP Publishing
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This paper presents an unobtrusive in-shoe energy harvester converting foot-strike energy into electricity to power wearable or portable devices. An air-pumped turbine system is developed to address the issues of the limited vertical deformation of shoes and the low frequency of human motion that impede harvesting energy from this source. The air pump is employed to convert the vertical foot-strike motion into airflow. The generated airflow passes through the miniaturized wind turbine whose transduction is realized by an electromagnetic generator. Energy is extracted from the generator with a higher frequency than that of footsteps, boosting the output power of the device. The turbine casing is specifically designed to enable the device to operate continuously with airflow in both directions. A prototype was fabricated and then tested under different situations. A 6 mW peak power output was obtained with a 4.9 Ω load. The achievable power from this design was estimated theoretically for understanding and further improvement.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/660/1/012060
