12-10-2010, 03:44 PM
Introduction
Walking is the most common activity in day to day life. When a person walks, he loses energy to the road surface in the form of impact, vibration, sound etc, due to the transfer of his weight on to the road surface, through foot falls on the ground during every step. This energy can be tapped and converted in the usable form such as in electrical form.
In order to develop a technique to harness foot step energy, a foot step electricity generating device was developed in the Reactor Control Division, BARC. This device, if embedded in the footpath, can convert foot impact energy into electrical form. The working principle is simple. When a pedestrian steps on the top plate of the device, the plate will dip down slightly due to the weight of the pedestrian. The downward movement of the plate results in rotation of the shaft of an electrical alternator, fitted in the device, to produce electrical energy. The top plate reverts back to its original position due to negating springs provided in the device.
If such devices are embedded in places where there is continuous human traffic such as in city malls, railway platforms, city footpaths etc., the electricity generated from these devices can be used for street lights.
The device developed at the Reactor Control Division is shown in Fig. 1. The device was tested and it was demonstrated that the energy generated by this device can be stored in a 12 V lead acid battery. A 100 watt, 230 volt bulb was connected to the battery through an inverter. The device was operated by persons walking over to it. The bulb automatically lights up when the battery reaches its full voltage. The bulb remained lighted till the battery was exhausted. However, if there is continuous movement of pedestrians over the device, the bulb can be kept lighted continuously.
for more details, please visit
http://www.barc.ernet.in/publications/nl...030407.pdf