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Frontiers in Energy

ISSN 2095-1701

ISSN 2095-1698(Online)

CN 11-6017/TK

邮发代号 80-972

2019 Impact Factor: 2.657

Frontiers in Energy  0, Vol. Issue (): 26-38   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-012-0215-9
  RESEARCH ARTICLE 本期目录
Wearable thermal energy harvester powered by human foot
Wearable thermal energy harvester powered by human foot
Guodong XU1, Yang YANG1, Yixin ZHOU1, Jing LIU2()
1. Key Laboratory of Cryogenics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Cryo-Biomedical Engineering, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; 2. Key Laboratory of Cryogenics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Cryo-Biomedical Engineering, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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Abstract

With explosive applications of many advanced mobile electronic devices, a pervasive energy system with long term sustainability becomes increasingly important. Among the many efforts ever tried, human power is rather unique due to its independence of weather or geographical conditions and is therefore becoming a research focus. This paper is dedicated to demonstrate the possibility and feasibility of harvesting thermal energy from human body by sandwiching a thermoelectric generator (TEG) between human shoe bottom and ground, aiming to power a portable electronic device. Through the conceptual experiments conducted on adults, a maximum 3.99 mW steady state power output at a ground temperature with 273 K is obtained, which is sufficient enough to drive a lot of micro-electronic devices. Also, parametric simulations are performed to systematically clarify the factors influencing the TEG working performance. To further reveal the mechanism of this power generation modality, analytical solutions to the coupled temperature distributions for human foot and TEG module are obtained and the correlation between TEG characteristics and the output power are studied. It was demonstrated that, the TEG working as a wearable power resource by utilizing thermal energy of human foot shows enormous potential and practical values either under normal or extreme conditions.

Key wordshuman power    thermal energy    energy harvesting    micro power    wearable device
收稿日期: 2012-08-09      出版日期: 2013-03-05
Corresponding Author(s): LIU Jing,Email:jliu@mail.ipc.ac.cn   
 引用本文:   
. Wearable thermal energy harvester powered by human foot[J]. Frontiers in Energy, 0, (): 26-38.
Guodong XU, Yang YANG, Yixin ZHOU, Jing LIU. Wearable thermal energy harvester powered by human foot. Front Energ, 0, (): 26-38.
 链接本文:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/CN/10.1007/s11708-012-0215-9
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/CN/Y0/V/I/26
Fig.1  
Fig.2  
Fig.3  
Fig.4  
Typical parametersDensity/(kg·m-3)Specific heat/(J·kg-1·K-1)Thermal conductivity/(W·m-1·K-1)
Muscle100042000.5
Blood10004200-
Skin100042000.3
Cotton150013400.8
Rubber112513801.7
Thermopiles85004741.6
Ceramic insulation370088017
Tab.1  
Typical casesTemperature difference/KOpen voltage/mVLoad voltage/mVTheoretical maximum power/mWActual output power/mW
Simulation1.59113.65-0.16-
Experiment (female)1.2493.5037.120.110.07
Experiment (male)2.08165.9378.430.340.31
Tab.2  
Fig.5  
Fig.6  
Fig.7  
Fig.8  
Fig.9  
Fig.10  
Fig.11  
Fig.12  
Fig.13  
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