Experimental and Simulation Validation of Piezoelectric Road Energy Harvesting

Abstract

This project strived to develop a prototype road piezoelectric energy harvester RPEH system using five Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) PZT 5H modules (stacks) that are embedded in the road by means of a housing unit to harvest energy from vehicles stressing the modules. The work is an extension of our previous published work in the same journal. The design considered many factors to optimize the harvested energy. The proposed system first captures mechanical energy using a designed module that transfers the energy to the piezoelectric stacks. Then the captured energy will be converted into electrical energy by the piezoelectric phenomenon. The harvested energy is stored in a storage device, then analyzed by an oscilloscope through the acquisition of the harvested voltage, current, power, and energy. When testing the RPEH with the wheel tracking machine, varying resistor loads where connected to the output of the RPEH to address the optimum power delivered to the load. The optimum load was found to be 950 kΩ, and the optimal harvested energy was recorded as 45 uJ.

Essential Assessment of Last‐Decade Progress in Road Energy Harvesting Systems

“…The authors also presented the results of their simulation, experimental, and verification studies in another article from the same year. [ 17 ] This proves the consistent progress and development of the work of this team of scientists.…”

“…Estimated typical single-transducer energy/power Estimated last-decade percentage of publications Directly from vehicles Piezoelectric systems 1-100 mJ/single vehicle pass [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] 48.5%…”

“…Extensive research material was presented, but the results are generally not of an application nature, but only cognitive in relation to specific test conditions. Based on the articles [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] published in 2012-2022 and other analyzed publications, it was estimated that in typical piezoelectric systems the range of energy obtainable from a single system is 1-100 mJ per single-vehicle pass.…”