Harvesting biomechanical energy in the walking by shoe based on liquid metal magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract

A liquid metal magnetohydrodynamics generation system (LMMGS) was proposed and demonstrated in this paper for collecting parasitic power in shoe while walking. Unlike the conventional shoe-mounted human power harvesters that use solid coil and gear mechanism, the proposed system employs liquid metal (Ga₆₂In₂₅Sn₁₃) as energy carrier, where no moving part is requested in magnetohydrodynamics generators (MHGs). While walking with the LMMGS, the foot alternately presses the two liquid metal pumps (LMPs) which are respectively placed in the front and rear of the sole. As a result, the liquid metal in the LMPs (LMP I and II) is extruded and flows through the MHGs (MHG I and II) in which electricity is produced. For a comparison, three types of LMMGSs (LMMGS A, B and C) were built where all the parts are the same except for the LMPs. Furthermore, performances of these LMMGSs with different volume of injected liquid metal were tested respectively. Experimental results reveal that both the output voltage and power of the LMMGS increase with the volume of injected liquid metal and the size of the LMPs. In addition, a maximum output power of 80 mW is obtained by the LMMGS C with an efficiency of approximately 1.3%. Given its advantages of no side effect, light weight, small size and reliability, The LMMGS is well-suited for powering the wearable and implantable micro/nano device, such as wearable sensors, drug pumps and so on.

Keywords

human energy harvesting / liquid metal / wearable magnetohydrodynamics generator / parasitic power in shoe

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Acknowledgements

This work is partially supported by the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg