Abstract Given its abundant availability, ambient thermal energy harvesting has the potential to power standalone microelectronic systems. The challenge in efficiently harvesting temperature and pressure variations is the low thermal to electric conversion ability of current harvesters. Most thermal harvesters require high temperature gradients. This paper presents the design, analysis, and implementation of an energy harvesting system that effectively harnesses naturally occurring temperature variations using ethyl chloride filled mechanical bellows. A mechanical drivetrain scales the bellows displacement and a coil spring stores the potential energy. This energy is periodically released and converted into useable electric power by a DC generator. A series of mathematical models are developed and accompanying numerical analyses completed on the harvester system. For a low frequency sinusoidal temperature cycle of ±1 °C about 22 °C, 9.6 mW of electrical power was produced using a 1.5 V micro DC generator for a 24 h harvesting period. The power generation capacity of the proposed harvester is sufficient to indefinitely operate low power sensors and microelectronics in environments with small temperature gradients.

中文翻译：

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大气变化转化为电能——发电机系统的设计与分析

摘要 鉴于其丰富的可用性，环境热能收集具有为独立微电子系统供电的潜力。有效收集温度和压力变化的挑战在于当前收集器的低热电转换能力。大多数热收集器需要高温梯度。本文介绍了一种能量收集系统的设计、分析和实施，该系统使用氯乙烷填充的机械波纹管有效地利用自然发生的温度变化。机械传动系统缩放波纹管位移，螺旋弹簧存储势能。这种能量被直流发电机周期性地释放并转换成可用的电能。开发了一系列数学模型，并在收割机系统上完成了相应的数值分析。对于 ±1°C 约 22°C 的低频正弦温度循环，使用 1.5 V 微型直流发电机产生 9.6 mW 的电力，收获期为 24 小时。所提出的收割机的发电能力足以在小温度梯度的环境中无限期地运行低功率传感器和微电子设备。