A Developed Design of Power Generating Tiles

Harvesting mechanical motion and converting it to electrical energy has increasing demands for enhancing the use of new sources of energy that are characterized by sustainable and environmental aspects. Design development is important for the best structure that delivers the required function and also for the Health Management of the Structure (SHM). Applying piezoelectric technology, e.g. the embedded cells in the sidewalk, shows a sustainable and clean source of electrical energy without using fossil fuel. In the current article, a developed stair-tile design is presented for power generation. The piezoelectric and mechanical techniques are applied to study power generation. Different input displacement cases are studied to simulate the free response and investigate how this will affect the generated energy. The results show that increasing the input displacement by changing the spring stiffness will have a higher response amplitude, which is better for piezo energy generation but might not be convenient for the users. The mechanical technique doesn't require high input displacement to increase the generated energy. The design is durable and applicable and both techniques can be used to generate sustainable and clean energy by tapping with continuous foot activity.