An approach to tap electrical energy from ground vibrations

Abstract

Electrical Energy Generation has become an important aspect in Power Systems because of incremental demands from citizenry in Electrical Distribution System. Electrical power generation using piezo sensors can efficiently convert unwanted vibrations into direct electricity as a renewable energy source. Blasting operations in mines and quarries always result in ground vibrations, which are of major environmental concern. Studies were carried out in three different limestone mines and two different sandstone formations of coal mines, situated in Southern India, to assess and analyze the seismic energy resulting from the blast induced ground vibrations. In addition, Piezo generator circuits were developed and used in addition to the seismographs at different distances, from short to long range, in all mining locations, to tap the ground vibrations. In total, Electrical energy was tapped from 66 blast induced ground vibrations in limestone formation and 41 blast induced ground vibrations in sandstone formation, using piezo sensor based piezo generators developed. The range of voltage tapped from ground vibrations is up to 4531.42mV in limestone formation and 4277.51mV in sandstone formation. � 2018 Author(s).