The Piezoelectric Phenomenon: The Effect of Disk Angle on Piezoelectric Voltage Output

Overview

Every footstep on a busy city street carries energy that disappears the moment it hits the ground. Piezoelectric materials can change that by converting mechanical stress directly into electricity, and are already used in sensors, microphones, and watches to harvest energy from small movements and vibrations. The objective of this project was to investigate how the angle of a piezoelectric disk affects the voltage it produces when struck, since the installation angle of piezoelectric floor tiles determines how much of each footstep's force is actually converted into usable energy. It was hypothesized that voltage would be highest at 0° and decrease progressively at 15°, 30°, and 45° as less of the impact force hit the disk perpendicularly. To test this, a piezoelectric disk was connected to a resistor and capacitor circuit, and a marble was dropped onto the disk from a fixed height across 100 trials at each angle, with voltage recorded by a digital multimeter each time. The results confirmed the hypothesis. Average voltage dropped from 634.06 mV at 0° down to 463.91 mV, 378.42 mV, and 297.88 mV at 15°, 30°, and 45° respectively, a total reduction of 53.0% from the flattest to the steepest angle. These findings matter beyond the lab. A 6.8 square meter piezoelectric tile installation along the State Street Promenade can generate enough energy from foot traffic to power a streetlight, but only when the tiles are perfectly level. Even a moderate tilt, as this experiment demonstrates, cuts output by more than half.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Alternative Energy (Junior Division) · Entry J-01-10

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