California Institute of Technology

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Phillip E Walkemeyer

Stewart Sherrit

Namhyo Kim

Thomas Gary Corbett

Hyeong Jae Lee

Alvaro Jose Arrazola

Kai Sun

Tim Colonius

Jeffrey L Hall

Phillipe Tosi

A flow energy harvesting device having a harvester pipe includes a flow inlet that receives flow from a primary pipe, a flow outlet that returns the flow into the primary pipe, and a flow diverter within the harvester pipe having an inlet section coupled to the flow inlet, a flow constriction section coupled to the inlet section and positioned at a midpoint of the harvester pipe and having a spline shape with a substantially reduced flow opening size at a constriction point along the spline shape, and an outlet section coupled to the constriction section. The harvester pipe may further include a piezoelectric structure extending from the inlet section through the constriction section and point such that the fluid flow past the constriction point results in oscillatory pressure amplitude inducing vibrations in the piezoelectric structure sufficient to cause a direct piezoelectric effect and to generate electrical power for harvesting.

Flow energy piezoelectric bimorph nozzle harvester

Growing community of inventors

Pasadena, CA, United States of America

Phillip E Walkemeyer