Effect evaluation of road piezoelectric micro-energy collection-storage system based on laboratory and on-site tests

Abstract

This paper presents a road piezoelectric micro-energy collection-storage system, which overcomes the problem of limited application due to the existing technology being unsuitable for complex road traffic conditions and instantaneous, discontinuous, and uneven road piezoelectric micro-energy output characteristics. The reliability of energy collection-storage is verified, the effects and laws of energy collection-storage under different traffic conditions and on-site open-traffic conditions are systematically studied, and the on-site power-to-electricity conversion efficiency and energy collection-storage efficiency under open traffic conditions are evaluated. The results indicate that the electrical output and energy collection-storage of the system are reliable, and the 3300 μF-capacity system can be fully charged in 2–6 min. The energy collection-storage effect under different traffic conditions is significant, and the greater the driving load, the fewer vehicles the 4 F-capacity system needs to collect and store the same energy. After the test section is paved, under the condition of random driving traffic, heavy load rolling and the more continuous, stable traffic flow with rich axle load spectrum will help the energy collection. And the energy method presented shows 180% improvement in accuracy compared with the traditional maximum theory. Under open traffic conditions, the maximum on-site power-to-electricity conversion efficiency of the system is 26.8%, the energy collection-storage efficiency is 5.15%, and the maximum overall efficiency from vehicle rolling to energy storage is 0.74–1.38%. This work will provide a strategy for the technology to collect and store energy more accurately and efficiently.