This Major Qualifying Project (MQP) team of seniors in Mechanical Engineering designed, built, and tested a renewable energy harvester from the flow of water through a river. This system converted the vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of a cylinder into the bending of two cantilevers with two piezoelectric transducers attached to their fixed ends. The cantilever was designed so its natural frequency matches the vortex shedding frequency of the cylinder in a given water flow. The alternating current (AC) from the transducers was then converted into a direct current (DC) using a rectifying circuit with a diode bridge and a filter capacitor as well as a voltage regulator. This functional system, which achieved a maximum electrical power of 3.14 μW, has the capability of powering low-power electronics including temperature sensors. This can be scaled to produce more power by increasing the size of the device, particularly the piezoelectric strips, by having multiple devices of this sort beside one another to compound the output power, or by increasing the natural frequency of the resonating system.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Gilmartin, Joseph
• Tepe, Alyssa
• Merritt, Brendan
• McCauley, Evan
• Feldman, Talya

Subject

• Innovation
• Sustainability
• Energy

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032522-130554
• 54096

Keyword

• Rectifying Circuit
• Renewable Energy
• Cantilever
• VIV
• Mechanical Vibrations
• Piezoelectric

Advisor

• Savilonis, Brian James

Year

• 2022

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Date created

• 2022-03-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright