Breeze-activated wind speed sensor with ultra-low friction resistance for self-powered gale disaster warning

The early warning and monitoring of gale disasters are very important for the safety of people’s lives and properties. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are popular for wind speed sensors due to their self-powered property. However, a TENG cannot easily work at low wind speeds due to the limitation of the high frictional resistance structure. In this paper, a TENG-based breeze-activated wind speed sensor (BAWS) with an ultra-low frictional resistance is proposed. The key drive unit of the BAWS is a Savonius-like vertical axis wind turbine, which is fabricated by arrayed airfoil profile blades with excellent flow field characteristics. Here a wind turbine plays dual roles in driving the electromagnetic generator below it to supply energy and lead the TENG above it to sense the wind force. Compared to a classical turbine with a wind cup, the designed turbine has a low resistance torque. The synergistic effect of the drive unit with low-resistance and triboelectric materials with low viscosity allows the BAWS to be activated even at a wind speed of 2.9 m/s. The sensitivities of the voltage frequency and current amplitude of the TENG are used to reflect the electrical property of the BAWS. The measured values are 0.291 Hz/(m·s −1 ) and 0.221 µA/(m·s −1 ), which reflects the good sensitivity of the BAWS. Moreover, the linearity of the BAWS reaches up to 0.991, which shows an accurate output for the wind speed. In addition, the device is equipped with a combined electromagnetic solar unit as the sole power source to meet the sensor’s all weather operation requirements. This work expands the application prospects of self powered sensing technology in the field of disaster warning.