Optimization of piezoelectric transducer placement in shoe insole for energy harvesting

Abstract

The technological advancement in today's world has made the world more dependent onto the technology thus increasing the demand for more power and energy. This directly caused the world to desperately find another way to produce energy as the world current main energy source has depleted. This paper focused on piezoelectric disk especially piezoelectric transducers as it is said to be the most effective in converting mechanical vibrations to into electrical energy. Pressure was applied onto the disk and it will then convert into an electrical output (voltage). The material that behaves in such a way is also known as piezoelectric sensor. The voltage produced by the transducer can easily be assessed by voltage measuring instruments that can be used to measure stresses or forces. The physical quantity like mechanical stress or force cannot be measured directly. Therefore, piezoelectric transducer can be used. First step in doing this research is to find the placement with the highest pressure point on the insole. After thorough research, two places with the highest pressure point were found which is at the front and back of the insole. After that, a small circuit was developed to get the data for the research. The circuit which includes a rectifier as an ACDC converter that converts AC to DC to be charged to the battery. From the output, data were taken and converted into joules which are then converted again into steps.