On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring
This work describes an experimental study on the possibilities of harvesting energy from tree trunks in order to power sensor nodes for environmental monitoring, particularly in wild forests. As the trunk of a living tree can be divided into isothermal subvolumes, which are generally referred to as...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Hindawi - SAGE Publishing
2016-06-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9383765 |
| _version_ | 1797719046365380608 |
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| author | Cleonilson P. Souza Fabrício B. S. Carvalho Filype A. N. Silva Hening A. Andrade Nathália de V. Silva Orlando Baiocchi Ivan Müller |
| author_facet | Cleonilson P. Souza Fabrício B. S. Carvalho Filype A. N. Silva Hening A. Andrade Nathália de V. Silva Orlando Baiocchi Ivan Müller |
| author_sort | Cleonilson P. Souza |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This work describes an experimental study on the possibilities of harvesting energy from tree trunks in order to power sensor nodes for environmental monitoring, particularly in wild forests. As the trunk of a living tree can be divided into isothermal subvolumes, which are generally referred to as annual rings, and the trunk is a good heat storage material, depending on the tree dimensions and its species, it can potentially offer different temperature gradients according to the tree trunk depths. The hypothesis is to consider the application of this temperature gradient on the faces of a Peltier cell to obtain electrical energy. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, a wireless sensor network was developed for measuring internal temperature of trunks from different trees. The experimental results show that it is possible to obtain a sufficient temperature gradient to harvest energy from tree trunks. Additionally, it is also shown that it is possible to harvest thermal energy during the day and during the night while photovoltaic cell only works under sunlight. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T08:59:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c750b7aed0c941878785999eeb0af264 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1550-1477 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T08:59:07Z |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | Hindawi - SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks |
| spelling | doaj.art-c750b7aed0c941878785999eeb0af2642023-09-02T15:47:21ZengHindawi - SAGE PublishingInternational Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks1550-14772016-06-011210.1155/2016/9383765On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental MonitoringCleonilson P. Souza0Fabrício B. S. Carvalho1Filype A. N. Silva2Hening A. Andrade3Nathália de V. Silva4Orlando Baiocchi5Ivan Müller6 Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), P.O. Box 5115, 58051-970 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), P.O. Box 5115, 58051-970 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), P.O. Box 5115, 58051-970 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), P.O. Box 5115, 58051-970 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), P.O. Box 5115, 58051-970 João Pessoa, PB, Brazil Institute of Technology, University of Washington Tacoma (UWT), Tacoma, WA 98402, USA Computer Engineering, State University of Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS), 2300 Santa Maria Street, Bom Fim Velho, 92500-000 Guaíba, RS, BrazilThis work describes an experimental study on the possibilities of harvesting energy from tree trunks in order to power sensor nodes for environmental monitoring, particularly in wild forests. As the trunk of a living tree can be divided into isothermal subvolumes, which are generally referred to as annual rings, and the trunk is a good heat storage material, depending on the tree dimensions and its species, it can potentially offer different temperature gradients according to the tree trunk depths. The hypothesis is to consider the application of this temperature gradient on the faces of a Peltier cell to obtain electrical energy. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, a wireless sensor network was developed for measuring internal temperature of trunks from different trees. The experimental results show that it is possible to obtain a sufficient temperature gradient to harvest energy from tree trunks. Additionally, it is also shown that it is possible to harvest thermal energy during the day and during the night while photovoltaic cell only works under sunlight.https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9383765 |
| spellingShingle | Cleonilson P. Souza Fabrício B. S. Carvalho Filype A. N. Silva Hening A. Andrade Nathália de V. Silva Orlando Baiocchi Ivan Müller On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks |
| title | On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring |
| title_full | On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring |
| title_fullStr | On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring |
| title_full_unstemmed | On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring |
| title_short | On Harvesting Energy from Tree Trunks for Environmental Monitoring |
| title_sort | on harvesting energy from tree trunks for environmental monitoring |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9383765 |
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