Design and simulation of MEMS cantilever based energy harvester-power source for piping health monitoring system

• Published in: 2015 National Conference on Recent Advances in Electronics & Computer Engineering (RAECE) pp. 183 - 188
• Main Authors: Balpande, Suresh S., Pande, Rajesh S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.02.2015
• Subjects: II-VI semiconductor materials; Instruments; Load modeling; Micromechanical devices; Monitoring; Piezoelectric harvester; Piezoelectric polarization; Piping system; Zinc oxide
• DOI: 10.1109/RAECE.2015.7509886

Industry without pipes cannot be imagined. The Complex piping network produces noise due to fluctuations in pressure. High frequency noise produces excessive noise and vibration causes failures of walls and instrumentation system used in pipes. In severe cases, the pipe itself can fracture. State-of-the-art piping systems employ sensor nodes for piping health monitoring such abnormality. This kind of mechanism helps us to take preventive actions to avoid fluid wastage and accident. sensor nodes retain this information and periodically transmit it. These tasks require an average power budget of between about 0.1 microwatt and 1 milli-watt. Sensor nodes mounted on pipe driven by battery require frequent charging and replacement due to limited life span of battery. In many cases It is not convenient to charge or replace because of underground laying and huge count. The second reason for finding substitute to battery is the fact that energy density of batteries increased by 8% whereas demand is 24 %. This is the reason for short life span of electronics even though it can survive for few decades. Thus we need to think concretely for an alternate energy sources. Energy harvesters have attracted attention as the substitute for battery. An attempt has been made to design energy harvester using the principle of piezoelectricity. Lead free Zinc Oxide material is proposed as piezoelectric material. This work presents design and simulation of electromechanical model. Proposed single cantilever harvester generates 22.25 microwatt of power for 1 KOhm load. Cantilevers array can be employed to supply more power.