Generate electrical energy from vibrating transformers

[Yves Maia Auad]

Hey guys, how are you?

I just have an idea but can't figure it out how to solve it. Is it possible to generate electrical energy from a (high power) transformer vibration using piezoelectrics?

 

[rootone]

Piezoelectic crystals etc, produce electricity by themselves although not very much.
I can't see how introducing a transformer could in some way increase the amount produced.

 

[Yves Maia Auad]

I mean attach a piezoelectric capsule in the transformer. As they vibrate from electromagnetic and magnetrostrictive forces, this can actually generate some extra electrical current on the piezo...Am I wrong?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[rootone]

It's possible to operate a piezoelectric in reverse so that applying a current to it will make the crystal change shape.
So yes you could use such a device to vibrate a magnet or a coil, and then use that vibration to produce a current.
All you are really doing there though is converting electrical input to mechanical energy, and converting that back into electrical energy.
Since the process can't be made 100% efficient there will be some energy lost, so you will end up needing to supply more power than you can get out.

 

[Yves Maia Auad]

English is not my mother tongue (I am brazilian)...probably there was a misunderstanding of what I really thought to do. Sorry mate!

I am not going to use the piezo to vibrate the transformer. My idea is try to convert that "already lost" mechanical energy from the transformer vibration to electrical energy using the piezo...

What i mean from transformer is the voltage transformer commonly used out there hehehehe (if you check a big one, you going to see that they vibrate as hell...its actually really annoying)

 

[rootone]

Ah, I got it now.
You mean you could attach a lot of piezoelectric devices to an already operating high power transformer and gain some additional electrical power from that.
Yes I think you could do that in principle, though I doubt that the amount of power produced would be enough to justify the cost of modifying a transformer in that way.