A hybrid flapping-leaf microgenerator for harvesting wind-flow energy

Abstract

Wind energy is a kind of inexhaustible renewable clean energy. Wind energy harvesting becomes a potential technique to solve the power supply problem of wireless sensor nodes in field environment. This paper demonstrates a hybrid flapping-leaf microgenerator (FLMG) that convert wind flow energy to electric energy. Both the piezoelectric and triboelectric parts will generate power from wind flow. The output performance can be improved by optimizing the size of the flapping leaf and the connecting position between the cantilever and leaf. At a wind speed of 4.5 m/s, the maximum power of the piezoelectric and triboelectric parts of one-side FLMG can be obtained as 8.1 μW and 13.6 μW at optimized load resistances of 1 MΩ and 0.75 MΩ, respectively.