Evaluation of Energy Harvesting from Different Sections of the Aortic Artery with Several Energy Harvester Materials

With the development of implants and microdevices used in the human body, supplying the energy of these devices is a challenge. One of the safest ways to overcome the challenge is to harvest the energy from the human body. In this study, the blood flow, wall deformation, and hemodynamic parameters of the aortic artery are evaluated based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Also, the artery displacement is linked to the output voltage by using Gauss' law. The results show that for the artery under study, the proximal descending thoracic aorta (PDTA) is the best place to harvest energy, although there is the highest blood pressure on the ascending aorta (AAo) and the highest wall displacement is in the aortic arch. Part of this result depends on the morphology of the existing aortic artery. Also, the piezoelectric model of PZT-5H harvests the most energy and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has the least, which can harvest power density of 1.34 and 1.27 x 10(-3)(mu W/mm(3)) respectively.