PFI-TT: Vibration Energy Harvesting to Meet Power Demands for the Electric Grid and Remote Sensing

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project can help society move toward a future of clean energy and more reliable systems. The focus of this project is to develop a more efficient method of extracting energy from a variety of sources at wider range of frequencies. These devices will have a large impact on ocean wave energy harvesters along the US coastline, a substantial source of potential green energy. Traditional approaches to wave-based energy harvesting have narrower operating conditions, while the energy harvesters developed in this project will have capability to produce higher energy with lower costs due to broader capabilities. This PFI-TT project also lends itself to powering remote sensors in situations where batteries or powerlines are not easily installed, such as for civil infrastructure like bridges. The societal benefit is more energy availability, cheaper energy costs, all while decreasing the dependence on fossil fuels. Commercially, lowering the cost of ocean wave energy harvesters can be a disruptive force in the energy sector. The proposed project aims to develop a frequency-tunable energy harvester that can operate at resonance over a wider frequency range compared to more conventional solutions. Operating at resonance enables more energy harvesting, which benefits sensing and power generation applications. The proposed project will first experimentally validate the computational model using a stationary table-top rig. During this validation, a basic, unoptimized prototype will be developed for sensing applications for self-powered sensors and the harvesting of energy in ocean waves. This project will optimize the prototype independently for each application. The outcome for the sensing application will be a scalable harvester capable of powering remote sensors, while the outcome of the power generator harvester is a wave energy converter design suited for specific US coastal region conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.