학술논문

Modelling and Characterization of a High-Efficiency, Cm-Scale and Low Velocity Airflow-Driven Harvester for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes
Document Type
Conference
Source
2019 19th International Conference on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS) Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS), 2019 19th International Conference on. :1-5 Dec, 2019
Subject
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Engineering Profession
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Language
Abstract
This paper reports the design, simulation, fabrication and performances of a centimeter-scale $(\emptyset=35\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m})$ airflow-driven harvester for autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSN). We present a model-based design tool implemented in Matlab-Simulink, which takes both computational fluid dynamics and electromagnetic fmite element simulations as inputs and we compare the simulation results with measurements for various air velocities. The harvester has a cut-in speed of 2 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and it is particularly efficient in the low airflow environments since its end-to-end efficiency ranges from 10.5% to 23.9% and its maximum output power from 200 $\mu \mathrm{W}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{o}3.7\mathrm{m}\mathrm{W}$ at 1.5 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and 3 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ respectively. The propeller alone has a mechanical power coefficient ranging from 19.1% to 34% at 1.5 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and 3 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ respectively. Furthermore, in the cm-scale and low airflow velocity ranges, the proposed harvester without shroud outperforms the state of the art in terms of power density and end-to-end efficiency (23.9% at 3 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$, 28% at 5 $\mathrm{m}.\mathrm{s}^{-1}$) and it still exhibits one of the highest performances with its shroud.