Comparison of piezoelectric transducers for treadmill vibration energy harvesting

Mechanical energy is a suitable solution to the acquisition of environmentally friendly electricity. Pressure, heat and vibration are common energy sources produced by ambient and man-made energy. This paper addresses treadmill vibration energy harvesting in an optimised way to meet the energy requirements of portable electronics devices using unimorph, bimorph piezoelectric cantilevers and ceramic discs piezoelectric. Due to its design flexibility, piezoelectric transduction mechanism is one of the most used techniques for vibration energy harvesting. The feasibility of vibration energy harvested from treadmill was theoretically and experimentally assessed on different gender; male and female of different weights at different speeds and the output power were recorded. We seek to experimentally prove the hypothesis that bimorph piezoelectric cantilever is better in comparison to unimorph cantilever and ceramic disc cantilever. We also seek to experimentally prove that different human weights and treadmill speeds contributed to the output power generation.