This study proposes a piezoelectric low-voltage measurement method sensor. The vibration source is obtained from the impact of water droplets at different distances. The voltage signal from the piezoelectric was recorded using a bar graph at a 100-Hz sampling rate. The voltage of each sample was saved in excel format and analyzed in MATLAB software. The voltages generated were comparatively analyzed for three piezoelectric transducers from the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) type. Based on experiments and analyses, it was found that transducers equipped with ring mass generation have high amplitude voltages compared to other types of PVDF. This finding also shows that PVDF equipped with a mass ring can generate voltages with larger amplitudes compared to PVDF without a mass ring. Voltage comparison of three different heights of PVDF revealed significant differences for each type. The higher the height, the greater the impact of the applied force, which will change the voltage generated by the PVDF sensor.
In addition to this, the results show that the transducer size will change the inductance and resistance values, which will affect the voltage produced by the sensor.
1. Introduction
High power consumption results in more energy being generated to meet user demands. This has resulted in increased demand for fossil fuels as fuel in power stations.Additionally, it increases electricity bills and
Billed electric energy services are indeed a public burden. The use of renewable resources is seen as an alternative to existing energy sources.
One of the promised new methods is to convert environmental vibrations into electrical energy via piezoelectric devices. This energy can be stored and used to power electrical and electronic devices (Jedol Dayou et al., 2009) [1]. Piezoelectric energy harvesting has developed rapidly over the past decade. This research area focuses on the requirements for small electronic devices due to power reduction, such as the use of micro-sensor networks for monitoring and self-charging applications (Alper Erturk and Daniel, 2011) [2].
Piezoelectricity was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie. They studied the electric charge generated by crystals such as quartz, tourmaline, and Rochelle salt.The term piezoelectric was first proposed by W. Hankel
Based on the principles of thermodynamics (Jordan and Ounaies, 2001) [3].
Piezoelectric devices have been designed in many forms, depending on their application. The devices come in many forms, including piezoelectric ceramics, single crystals, thin films, screen-printed thick films, and polymeric materials (Beeby et al., 2006) [4]. The most common types of piezoelectric materials used are polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) (Wong et al., 2014) [5]. Comparison of two material types, piezoelectric ceramics lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), shows that PVDF is less costly than PZT and PVDF is non-toxic, whereas PZT is toxic, while PVDF makes it possible to Higher power of electrodes (Vioala et al., 2013) [6].
Piezoelectric technology is already widely used in many applications, for example, it has been used to convert stress from vehicles. Sensors are embedded under the road and convert energy as vehicles pass by (Aqsa Abbasi, 2013) [7]. Furthermore, it is designed as a micro-electromechanical system to power wireless sensor networks (Nechibvute et al., 2012) [8].
Power conversion using piezoelectrics is very widespread and is used to convert sound waves into electrical energy, for example, energy can also be obtained from aircraft noise such as aerodynamic noise, engine and other mechanical noise (Gupta et al., 2013) [9]. A comparison of vibrations from three sources were construction pilling, hydraulic pumps and train wheels where vibrations were found to provide high pressure from train wheels (Arnab et al., 2014) [10].In addition to this, studies on the effect of piezoelectric connections have shown that series connections
With higher voltage output, it is recommended that any designer intending to design a voltage generator from PZT should consider series
PZT (Bonface, Mwanzia and Kamweru Paul Kuria, 2020)[11]
Most previous research on piezoelectric energy harvesting has focused on machines and human activities involving severe vibrations. Recently, there have been efforts to generate energy from water and raindrops. Voltage generated by a single PVDF and two parallel PVDFs when exposed to raindrops shows that single PVDF generates higher voltage values than double PVDF PVDF (Viola et al., 2013) [6]. In addition to this, studies on piezoelectric harvesters using rainfall energy models show that with increasing height, there is a maximum value in the voltage produced by the voltage drop (Viola et al., 2014) [12]. Another factor that affects the voltage value generated by piezoelectricity is the size and volume of the water droplet (Emma and Antoinette, 2015 [13]; Aashay Tinakkar, 2013 [14]).
Previous literature reported that a drop of water hitting a pancake-shaped electric plate would generate a voltage below tens of volts (Viola et al., 2014) [12]. Therefore, the force of the water droplets can act as a source of vibration. Piezoelectricity converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. Studies of the vibration effects of water droplets have previously involved only one size of piezoelectric body, which has been tested without weighting elements. In this study, two factors, viz., vibration signal modes between massed and massless PVDF designs will be studied. The second factor was to investigate how the size of the piezoelectric transducer changes the voltage value. The purpose of the study was to see if the size of the PVDF would affect the voltage value generated by the sensor. The experimental results of this study are considered important and can be used to design small energy supplies and self-charging devices.