A magnetic/piezoelectric-based thermal energy harvester

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate a non-contact magnetic/piezoelectric-based thermal energy harvester utilizing an optimized thermal-convection mechanism to enhance the heat transfer in the energy harvesting/converting process in order to increase the power output. The harvester consists of a CuBe spring, Gadolinium soft magnet, NdFeB hard magnets, frame, and piezoelectric PZT cantilever beams. According to the configuration, the energy harvesting/converting process under a temperature-difference is cyclic. Thus, the piezoelectric beams continuously oscillate and subsequently produce voltage responses due to the piezoelectric effect. The maximum voltage response of the harvester under a temperature-difference of 25°C is 16.6 mV with a cycling frequency of 0.58 Hz. In addition, we compare the testing result of the harvester utilizing the new thermal-convection mechanism reported in this paper and using previous thermal-convection mechanism reported elsewhere. According to the comparison, the results show the harvester utilizing the new thermal-convection mechanism has a higher cycling frequency resulting in a higher power output than the previous mechanism. © 2013 SPIE.