Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Power Maximization For Pyroelectric, Piezoelectric, And Hybrid Energy Harvesting, Murtadha A. Shaheen

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation consists of improving the efficiency of energy harvesting using pyroelectric and piezoelectric materials in a system by the proper characterization of electrical parameters, widening frequency, and coupling of both effects with the appropriate parameters.

A new simple stand-alone method of characterizing the impedance of a pyroelectric cell has been demonstrated. This method utilizes a Pyroelectric single pole low pass filter technique, PSLPF. Utilizing the properties of a PSLPF, where a known input voltage is applied and capacitance C_p and resistance R_p can be calculated at a frequency of 1 mHz to 1 Hz. …

Optimal Design Of Geothermal Power Plants, Joshua Clarke

Theses and Dissertations

The optimal design of geothermal power plants across the entire spectrum of meaningful geothermal brine temperatures and climates is investigated, while accounting for vital real-world constraints that are typically ignored in the existing literature. The constrained design space of both double-flash and binary geothermal power plants is visualized, and it is seen that inclusion of real-world constraints is vital to determining the optimal feasible design of a geothermal power plant. The effect of varying condenser temperature on optimum plant performance and optimal design specifications is analyzed. It is shown that condenser temperature has a significant effect on optimal plant design …