Finite element analysis of Cymbal piezoelectric transducers for harvesting energy from asphalt pavement

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to design a Cymbal for harvesting energy from asphalt pavement. Asphalt pavement is used popular on road. Part of the energies in the pavement caused by vehicle and gravity can be harvested by piezoelectric transducers. Cymbal is selected to harvest energy from asphalt pavement because of its low cost, high reliability and reasonable efficiency. The efficiency and coupling effects with pavement of Cymbals with various sizes are discussed through finite element analysis (FEA). The displacement difference at pavement surface between with and without Cymbal is developed to considering the coupling effects. The results show that the potential electric energy harvested from pavement increases with the diameter of Cymbal. However, the efficiency decreases with the increasing of Cymbal size. The diameter at 32 mm is suggested as the size of Cymbal. The potential electric energy increases near linearly with the diameter of end cap cavity base. Enough bonding area should be left to bond the end steel cap and PZT. There is a maximum electric energy existing when the top diameter of the end steel cap changes. The maximum electric energy is generated when the thickness of cap steel is about 0.3 mm. There is also a maximum electric energy existing when the height of end cap cavity changes. The Cymbals with thicker PZT can generate higher electric potential and storage electric energy. Considering the storage electric energy, cost, bonding between end steel cap and PZT and the pavement surface displacement, the Cymbal with 32 mm of total diameter, 22 mm of cavity base diameter, 10 mm of end cap top diameter, 0.3 mm of cap steel thickness, 2 mm of cavity height and 2 mm of PZT thickness is suggested as the optimum one for harvesting energy from asphalt pavement. The electric potential is about 97.33 V of the design Cymbal. 0.06 J electric energy can be storage in that Cymbal. Its potential maximum output power is about 1.2 mW at 20 Hz vehicle load frequency.

Energy harvesting from pavement via polyvinylidene fluoride: hybrid piezo-pyroelectric effects

“…Furthermore, the potential pyroelectric effect is not considered. Zhao et al (2010) proposed a cymbal-shaped PZT-based energy harvester and analyzed its coupling with asphalt pavement structure using a finite element model. PVDF-based energy harvesters have also been investigated that convert ambient vibration into electricity (Chen, 2014).…”

Recent progress on piezoelectric energy harvesting: structures and materials

“…Zhao et al [26] studied the efficiency and coupling effects on various dimensions of cymbal PEH from the pavement caused by vehicle and gravity via finite element analysis (FEA). Considering the storage electric energy, cost, bonding between end steel cap and PZT, and pavement surface displacement, the optimum one was with total diameter (32 mm), cavity base diameter (22 mm), end cap top diameter (10 mm), cap steel thickness (0.3 mm), cavity height (2 mm), and PZT thickness (2 mm).…”

An Adaptive Self-powered Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuit and Its Application on Bridge Condition Monitoring

“…Vibration amplitude and frequency not only relate with the material structure of the road, but also with the traffic load and speed; so the vibration amplitude and frequency for road energy harvesting is in a wide range. It has been shown that the resonant frequency of urban roads with asphalt pavement was about 20Hz [23,24]. For the bridge condition monitoring, the main resonant frequencies of the bridge deck were identified in the range from 0-50Hz by installing energy harvester on the girders and the pipe fixed on the girders under a bridge in France, where the power spectral densities have the peak values at the frequencies around 14.5Hz [25].…”