energy harvesting via PVDF - (02)

[brian carroll]

okay, so the big surprise for me was that this piezo film
technology lines up directly with an energy harvesting
article from a recent (urls) list. excerpted again below:
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// contact electrification using patterned nanomaterials...
// note: the gap, equilbrium via chargeflow, as if via entropy.
// discovery originating from malfunctioning piezo-sensor...

Capturing wasted electricity with triboelectric generators
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-capturing-electricity-triboelectric.html

[quote] "Beyond generating power, the technology could also provide a
new type of self-powered sensor, allowing detection of vibrations,
motion, water leaks, explosions – or even rain falling." ... "They
have learned to increase the {power output density by a factor of
100,000} by applying micron-scale patterns to the polymer sheets. The
patterning effectively increases the contact area and thereby
increases the effectiveness of the charge transfer." [unquote]

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from what i have read about PVDF, it would seem possible
that a similar nanopatterning could be etched onto the piezo
film surface that is bending or strained, and via this more
intense grid or array it may be possible to likewise up the
capacitance or charge that can be held and stored within
piezo film, (patterns like a step-up-transformer perhaps),
based on the above, if indeed a non-piezo film investigation.

the characteristics appear identical: LEDs need enough
voltage to light, and a constant current to maintain lit, and
thus the high voltage of material difference or 'gap' in the
original news story (linked above) indicates that a high
voltage is _momentarily transferred that is enough to
light up an array of LEDs, though only for an instant.
and this becomes an application for energy harvesting.

so it should be notable if the PVDF film also shares these
properties, that it generates a high voltage that can be sent
into a circuit, though likewise it is a momentary not constant
charge and thus particular circuits would need to be designed
to allow it to function as a source of energy for a self-sustaining
circuit (energy harvesting) rather than just pushing out current,
unless somehow it was possible to get it moving in that way...

i.e. constant vibration -> high voltage -> constant AC current

(these observations from someone who knows nothing about
these things, beyond trying to understand the fundamentals
of basic electronics components and their functioning. yet
enough to ask questions and make a few assumptions...)

so it appears to be an issue of a trickle-charge circuit, that
the PVDF film would vibrate and offload that current into a
another capacitor where it could be stored until a usable
amount and then accessed for low-power functionality of
some super-efficient circuit design, PVDF the powersource.

so for this trickle charge circuit, it is imagined:

  PVDF film --> diode --> supercapacitor --> "circuit"

whereby 'vibrational energy' is powering the overall circuit,
which in crypto or security terms could be sensing-related
or monitoring or sniffing data via low-power and stealth, etc.
or perhaps even transmitting information or code or relaying
or capturing infrasound data, where vibration both provides
power to the circuit and information (high metaphysics)

from what i have read, the current is AC from the piezo film,
and then another capacitor would turn it into DC if this is not
mistaken, for use in such a circuit- this only an approximation
of what the most basic issues might involve, if also incorrect
though i figure many here have the information and knowledge
to resolve such issues if inquiring further, thus; 'about ideas'


so at this stage, as with everything: things start to get weird...

perhaps it is because of my lack of knowledge or involves some
basic misunderstanding that i am simply incapable of realizing;
though this little electronic component is essentially some kind
of strange antenna device, and if it can be made to vibrate then
it generates power; so if it constantly vibrates, it constantly is
able to generate current and thus replaces a battery in a circuit

so to get usable current, the key is to either trickle charge and
build up and store energy over time, to a point that it can be
used at normal levels, or to generate a frenzy of energy via
constant activity that strains the PVDF film, creating a flow
of alternating current that can be immediately turned to DC
as powersource, and thus 'live power' vs. a delayed approach

(maybe oversimplifying or confusing the electronics issues
or paradigms involved, though this is how i am relating to it)

why does it matter?

well, from what i understand after listening to my friend who
is a composer, making a film on a Nikola Tesla, whose studies
and research focuses on 'music as an energy system', [0] [1]
also in relation to my own investigations of logic (A=A) as this
relates to her study of tuning systems and "resonance-based
energy transfer" (somewhat in the range of wireless power, yet
non-electromagnetic, involving vibrations, not moving of charge)-

if there were a vibration that existed that could be tapped into
by this PVDF piezo film -as antenna- and it could be made to
vibrate constantly, then *bingo* -- it is access to free-energy

and i am only thinking these specific thoughts because of hh,
and would be nowhere in this vicinity with my own investigations
which tend more towards the HIOX model though interest of this
realm of electronics is extreme at the same time as my illiteracy
and incapacity, thus words must substitute for actual experiment.

and so piecing it together- under such guidance, it is verified by
others who are expert that this constant vibration exists within
the environment already, today, now, and for billions of years
presumably. it was investigated by Nikola Tesla, where the
area between the ground of earth and the dome of sky in its
upper atmosphere create a waveguide or sorts, known as
the "Earth-ionosphere cavity" [2], which in turn generates a
vibrational frequency known as the Schumann Resonance [3]
that provides a source of constant vibration at 7.83 Hz resulting
from lightning strikes in the atmosphere which then creates this
giant battery in the sky, that in turn could be tapped into, both
in non-electromagnetic terms, via vibration, and likely as with
lightning, electromagnetic terms, as a source of power.

so it cannot be this easy, right. gotta be missing something.
and if i could design the circuit and figure it, i would know, and
yet i cannot and so share my puzzlement, inquiring: why not?
what am i missing, what do i fail to understand of the situation?


in other words, if you can get the PVDF film vibrating by tuning
into the 7.83 Hz frequency of the Schumann Resonance, you
would have access a local instance of perpetual motion, as long
as the dynamics retain the existing characteristics, indefinitely

continued...


0. helen hall - composer, filmmaker
http://www.helenhall.net

1. Pictures of Infinity -- film about Tesla & aether
http://picturesofinfinity.net/

2. Earth-ionosphere cavity (diagrams)
http://www.glcoherence.org/templates/gcp/images/monitoring_system/earth_rhythms/diagram_schumann_resonances_ionosphere_cavity.jpg
http://www.vlf.it/Schumann/cavity.gif

3. Schumann resonances
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schumann_resonances


oratorio, amaryllis, Teller