Piezo electric generator science fair

[deleted-623321]

Hello. I am doing a school Science Fair project on energy harvesting with Piezoelectric generator in a shoe. Teacher does not want to conduct the experiment by using the weight of a person and measuring volt in different motion such as walking or jogging .

From what I understand, Piezoelectric generators required to be flexed to generate electricity. I was originally going to conduct the experiment by pressing down a set number of times with finger and measure the output. My teacher says the amount of pressure applied to push the Piezoelectric generator will not be consistent and hence it’s another variable and hence I need to find another method . I was suggested putting weights on tbd Piezoelectric generator but from what I am researching, Piezoelectric will only generate electricity when flexed or some sort of motion that causes the piezo to generate power.

I am thinking of building a circuit with a capacitor to store the voltage and light bulb to show that it is working and generating power. However I am stuck at the fact that I can not use fingers to push the Piezoelectric crystals , I am just trying to simulate walking .

I thought of so many other options like loud music possibly can generate violate by vibration or , fan blades can help flex or wind .

I need an idea to flex the crystals using some powered tool .

Could you please guide me in right direction

[audreyln]

Sounds like a great project. I agree that you need to control for the amount of pressure on your generator and using a human hand will be difficult. What about using a small weight set on the generator? This would keep the pressure applied constant.

Good luck!

Audrey

[LeungWilley]

Hi Aaroaran,
Sounds like a great project!

In order to generate the constant force to flex the material, I was thinking that you might want to consider something along the line of a coil tester or compression machine. Here's an example:
https://www.instructables.com/id/TestrB ... t-Machine/

Since you had mentioned that you are hoping to put this generator in a shoe, you might also want to look at something such as this impact tester for additional ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFQJQekeuVY

Good Luck and please let us know if there's anything else we can do to help!
Willey