Good vibrations

There’s a huge amount of free, clean energy o" height="120" width="185" itemprop="contentUrl">

Energy harvesting ? using vibrations from the environment to produce electricity ? has been around for over a decade, but Dr Stephen Burrow and his team in the Department of Aerospace Engineering hope that within five years it could be powering devices such as heart monitors and mobile phones. Currently the team is exploring how vibrations caused by machines such as helicopters and trains could be used to produce power, but vibrations from household appliances and the movement of the human body could also be harnessed for this purpose. Energy harvesting ? using vibrations from the environment to produce electricity ? has been around for over a decade, but Dr Stephen Burrow and his team in the Department of Aerospace Engineering hope that within five years it could be powering devices such as heart monitors and mobile phones. Currently the team is exploring how vibrations caused by machines such as helicopters and trains could be used to produce power, but vibrations from household appliances and the movement of the human body could also be harnessed for this purpose. 'Vibration energy-harvesting devices use a spring with a mass on the end,' explains Burrow. 'The mass and spring exploit a phenomenon called resonance ' the production of a large vibration in one object as a direct result of a relatively small vibration in another object ? to amplify small vibrations, enabling useful energy to be extracted. Even just a few milliwatts can power small electronic devices like a heart rate monitor or an engine temperature sensor, but it can also be used to recharge power-hungry devices likeMP3 players or mobile phones.