Towards a prototype module for piezoelectric energy harvesting from raindrop impacts

The main findings of this work are that: a) a technique is found to identify the efficiency of the impact mechanism as the droplet interacts with the device and the efficiency of the mecheno-electric conversion mechanism due to internal losses in the device; b) values for the impact mechanism efficiency and the conversion mechanism efficiency are ascertained; and c) the optimum arrangement for a single device is determined.