Acoustic Energy Harvesting in Nigeria: Prospects, Technical Problems and Socio-Economic Obstacles

Journal of Energy Research and Reviews ◽

10.9734/jenrr/2020/v5i130139 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 16-33

Author(s):

Michael U. Onuu

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Acoustic Energy ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Noise Power ◽

Noise Levels ◽

Noise Sources ◽

Technical Problems ◽

Wide Range ◽

Acoustic Energy Harvesting

Aims: To investigate the prospects or potentials of acoustic energy harvesting in Nigeria as well as highlight technical problems and socio-economic obstacles. Study Design: The study re-examined existing data, noise levels and noise power, from road traffic, aircraft, industrial/occupational, outdoor and indoor noise sources. Noise levels and noise power obtained from recent measurements of such noise sources were also examined and analyzed. The data were compared with values from noise sources used for electricity in other countries of the world. Technical problems and socio-economic obstacles have been highlighted. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The duration was one year: April, 2019 and April, 2020. Methodology: Wide range noise level measurements, analysis and re-examination of existing data on road traffic, aircraft, industrial/occupational, outdoor and indoor noise were conducted, in line with the objectives of the study, in cities, industries as well as homes with different noise features. Measurements were carried out using sound level meter, SLM, (Bruel and Kjaer 2203) with – octave band filter and SLM, EXTECH 407750 with RS232, sound level recorder (B & K 7005), and noise level (statistical) analyzer (B & K 2121) to obtain noise levels and indices. Also, noise power was subsequently obtained for each of the various noise levels and indices. Results: Maximum noise levels, Lmax.; noise power, Wmax.; octave band pressure levels, BPLs; and other indices for the different noise sources were determined. Lmax. and Wmax for aircraft were as high as 116 dB and 0.4 W, respectively, while those for industry and road traffic ranged from 104.0 dB-131.0 dB and 67.5 dB-85.6 dB corresponding to 0.025 W-12.59 W and 0.0000056 W-0.00036 W, respectively. Spectral power of road traffic noise varied between 5.17 x 10-5 W and 9.69 x 10-3 W. Outdoor and household noise sources had Lmax. of up to 48.5 dB and 88.0 dB, that is, 0.000000071 W and 0.00063 W, for quiet and noisy periods, respectively. It was observed that road traffic noise has the highest potential for acoustic energy harvesting in Nigeria being reasonably steady over time, especially, on intra-city roads. Availability of tricycles/motorcycles in abundance and frequent use of horn by motorists support this assertion. The noise levels and noise power from these sources obtained in this investigation are higher than those that have been used as input to acoustic energy harvesters (AEHs) such as piezoelectric based and triboelectric nanogenerators (TRENGs) to achieve known efficiencies as reported elsewhere. Conclusion: The noise power is such that it could be used in powering microelectronic components, devices and in lighting light emitting diodes (LEDs). Power supply (PS) audio noise harvesters (ANHs) have been identified as potential noise energy sources since there is wide range use of air-conditioned by the political class, elites and government agencies in Nigeria where maximum temperature of 47.2°C is attainable. These findings show the viability of AEH in Nigeria and their addition to the existing body of knowledge in the emerging area of AEH will open a new window of research in AEH in this part of the world. Other prospects of AEH in Nigeria, technical problems and socio-economic obstacles are highlighted.

Download Full-text

The “sound of silence” in Granada during the COVID-19 lockdown

Noise Mapping ◽

10.1515/noise-2021-0002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 16-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jerónimo Vida Manzano ◽

José Antonio Almagro Pastor ◽

Rafael García Quesada ◽

Francesco Aletta ◽

Tin Oberman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Activity ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Traffic Noise ◽

Environmental Noise ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Noise Levels ◽

Noise Sources ◽

Comparison Results ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

Abstract Exceptional circumstances in the city of Granada due to the COVID-19 lockdown have provided the opportunity to characterise the impact of humans on its urban acoustic climate. Traditional environmental noise management and urban sound planning usually take into account noise sources in the city, such as industrial activities or road traffic noise, in model estimations, as well as in empirical research. But trying to isolate human impact by itself, human activity including social activity, walking, talking or just going around the city, has always been a difficult or even impossible task. The COVID-19 lockdown measures have provided the opportunity to study urban climate as never before, affected just by natural or animal noise sources. Previous soundscape research at some iconic sites in the city of Granada carried out in 2019 before the lockdown and a special measuring campaign carried out at the same locations during the lockdown in 2020 offered valuable information on sound levels and local characteristics in order to carry out this comparison. Results show a great change in environmental noise levels that is interesting not only because of its magnitude, but also for its implications, especially at those sites where social human activity was an identifying characteristic. Natural or animal sounds became surprisingly evident at some study sites, especially where road traffic noise dramatically decreased, leading to significantly lower background noise levels. Important spectral changes are observed before and during the lockdown, suggesting a shift from anthropic to animal sources in the acoustic environment.

Download Full-text

Road Traffic Noise Levels at Different Types of Residential Areas in Nibong Tebal, Penang

International Journal of Integrated Engineering ◽

10.30880/ijie.2019.11.01.013 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Herni Halim ◽

◽

Nur Fatin Najiyah Hamid ◽

Mohamad Firdaus Mahamad Yusob ◽

Nur Atiqah Mohamad Nor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Road Traffic ◽

Traffic Noise ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Residential Areas ◽

Noise Levels ◽

Different Types

Download Full-text

The effect of type of sound damper material in the Helmholtz resonator to the output power spectrum of acoustic energy Harvester

Journal of Physics Theories and Applications ◽

10.20961/jphystheor-appl.v3i2.38148 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 50

Author(s):

Hedwigis Harindra ◽

Agung Bambang Setio Utomo ◽

Ikhsan Setiawan

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Power Spectrum ◽

Electric Power ◽

Energy Harvester ◽

Helmholtz Resonator ◽

Acoustic Energy ◽

Acoustic Energy Harvesting ◽

Wasted Energy ◽

Second Peak ◽

Output Electric Power

Acoustic energy harvesting is one of many ways to harness acoustic noises as wasted energy into useful electical energy using an acoustic energy harvester. Acoustic energy harvester that tested by Dimastya (2018) which is consisted of loudspeaker and Helmholtz resonator, produced two-peak spectrum. It is suspected that the first peak is due to Helmholtz resonator resonance and the second peak comesfrom the resonance of the conversion loudspeaker. This research is to experimentally confirm the guess of the origin of the first peak. The experiments are performed by adding silencer materials on the resonator inner wall which are expected to be able to reduce the height of first peak and to know how they affect the output electric power spectrum of the acoustic energy harvester. Three different silencer materials are used, those are glasswool, acoustic foam, and styrofoam, with the same thickness of 12 cm. The results show that glasswool absorbs sound more effectively than acostic foam and styrofoam. The use of glasswool, acoustic foam, and styrofoam with 12 cm thickness lowered the first peak by 90% (from 39 mW to 0,5 mW), 82% (from 39 mW to 0,7 mW), and 82% (from 39 mW to 0,7 mW), respectively. Based on these results, it is concluded that the guess of the origin of the first peak is confirmed.

Download Full-text

Urban Distributed Acoustic Sensing Using In-Situ Fibre Beneath Bern, Switzerland

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8225 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Krystyna Smolinski ◽

Patrick Paitz ◽

Daniel Bowden ◽

Pascal Edme ◽

Felix Kugler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Resolution ◽

Seismic Waves ◽

Velocity Structure ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Hazard Analysis ◽

Noise Sources ◽

Acoustic Sensing ◽

Wide Range ◽

Distributed Acoustic Sensing

Anticipating the risks natural hazards pose to an urban environment requires an understanding of the shallow Earth structure of the region. While urban infrastructure often hinders the deployment of a traditional seismic array, Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology facilitates the use of existing telecommunication fibre-optic cables for seismic observation, with spatial resolution down to the metre scale.Through collaboration with the SWITCH foundation, we were able to use existing, in-situ fibres beneath Bern, Switzerland for seismic data acquisition over two weeks, covering a distance of 6 km with a spatial resolution of 2 m. This allowed for not only real-time visualisation of anthropogenic noise sources (e.g. road traffic), but also of the propagation of resulting seismic waves.Data is analysed in the time and frequency domain to explore the range of signals captured and to assess the consistency of data quality along the cable. The local velocity structure can be constrained using both noise correlations and deterministic signals excited by traffic.Initial results reveal the ability of DAS to capture signals over a wide range of frequencies and distances, and show promise for utilising urban DAS data to perform urban seismic tomography and hazard analysis.

Download Full-text

Evaluation of piezoelectric based acoustic energy harvesting for low power wireless applications

2008 17th IEEE International Symposium on the Applications of Ferroelectrics ◽

10.1109/isaf.2008.4693948 ◽

2008 ◽

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Low Power ◽

Acoustic Energy ◽

Wireless Applications ◽

Acoustic Energy Harvesting

Download Full-text

Efficient acoustic energy harvesting by deploying magnetic restoring force

Smart Materials and Structures ◽

10.1088/1361-665x/ab3a6a ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (10) ◽

pp. 105037 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Masoud Rezaei ◽

R Talebitooti ◽

M I Friswell

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Acoustic Energy ◽

Restoring Force ◽

Acoustic Energy Harvesting

Download Full-text

Acoustic energy harvesting based on the topological interface mode of 1D phononic crystal tube

Applied Physics Express ◽

10.7567/1882-0786/ab5ff8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 017004

Author(s):

Lei Fan ◽

Ye He ◽

Xiao-an Chen ◽

Xue Zhao

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Phononic Crystal ◽

Acoustic Energy ◽

Acoustic Energy Harvesting ◽

Interface Mode

Download Full-text

Road Noise Levels in Urban Environment Compared to Specification Limits. The Case of the City of Larissa, Greece

Periodica Polytechnica Civil Engineering ◽

10.3311/ppci.14868 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Emmanouil A. Papadimitriou ◽

Grigorios P. Papageorgiou ◽

Nikolaos Alamanis ◽

Theodosia-Niki Diakosavva

Keyword(s):

Road Traffic ◽

Traffic Noise ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Noise Levels ◽

Road Noise ◽

Greek City ◽

Limit Values ◽

High Noise ◽

Specification Limits ◽

The City

Greece, as well as other developed countries, is facing the growing problem of road traffic noise. It stands for a severe problem in the urban areas of the country, including the city of Larissa. The root cause is the huge increase in traffic volume and the lack of adequate urban infrastructure planning. Estimation of the level of road traffic noise is usually conducted using acoustic meters. It is widely accepted that most of the cities’ population is exposed to high noise levels due to controversial traffic capacity. Moreover, high noise levels are strongly related to phycological and neurological diseases. Thus, it is of utmost importance, the road noise levels to be lower than dictated by relevant specification limits. To develop better noise-environment policies, relative research should focus on the measurement of in-situ noise levels, so as appropriate for each case corrective measures to be taken. The present paper examines the noise levels of a center road of the 5th Greek city, in terms of population, compared to worldwide adopted noise specification limits. The clear aim stands for finding the percentage of road noise that exceeds commonly accepted threshold values, namely limit values of European Union and World Health Organization. The results of this research strongly indicate that measured noise values override upper limit values in a certain extent.

Download Full-text

Rapid Modeling Method for Road Traffic Noise Sources: A case study in Beijing

Noise Mapping ◽

10.1515/noise-2015-0003 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

L. Zhu ◽

X. Li ◽

C. Jiang ◽

L. Liu ◽

R. Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Road Traffic ◽

Traffic Noise ◽

Modeling Method ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Road Traffic Noise ◽

Emission Model ◽

Noise Sources ◽

The Road ◽

The Mean ◽

Rapid Modeling

AbstractBased on the local road traffic conditions in Beijing, China, this contribution proposes a rapid modeling method for road traffic noise sources. Since establishing the standardized experiment fields are expensive, real roads are used to determine the road traffic noise emission model in the method. Due to the similarity in the urban structures in China and Japan, this paper uses the ASJ- 2013 model as a template and replaces its model parameters with the ones output by an optimization program which minimizes the sum of absolute errors between the predicted and the measured LAeq. Real road experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the modeling method. The mean error of the model deduced by the method and the ASJ-2013 model is respectively 0.4 dB and 2.6 dB, and the mean absolute error of the two models is respectively 1.1 dB and 2.6 dB. The results of the real road experiments show that the road traffic noise sources deduced by the method are more accurate to conduct local noise prediction than those of other models.

Download Full-text