Influence of vehicle body vibration induced by road excitation on the performance of a vehicle-mounted piezoelectric-electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester

Abstract

In order to study the influence of vehicle body vibration caused by road excitation on the output performance of a vehicle piezoelectric electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester, the theoretical analysis of the energy harvester is carried out, and a corresponding electromechanical coupling model is established. The hybrid energy harvester includes a flutter piezoelectric energy harvester (FPEH) and an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester (EVEH). Sweep frequency experiments and wind tunnel experiments were carried out to verify the correctness of the coupling model. By establishing the road-vehicle coupling differential equations solving module, the vehicle body vibration under different road surfaces was simulated, and the influence of different roads on output performance is analyzed. The results show that when vehicle body vibration is not considered, the cut-in speed of the harvester is 32 km h−1. When the vehicle speed is higher than 32 km h−1, vehicle body vibration caused by road roughness will suppress the overall output performance. When the vehicle speed is less than 32 km h−1, the vibration of the vehicle body will cause the energy harvester to have no obvious cut-in wind speed. And the higher the road level, the stronger the body vibration, and the better the output performance when the vehicle speed is less than 32 km h−1. Under E-class road with vehicle body vibration considered, it has already power output at a vehicle speed of 20 km h−1. When the vehicle speed reaches 57 km h−1, the output power of hybrid FPEH and EVEH reach 1.74 and 2.51 mW under E-class road (2.88 and 3.25 mW under A-class road), respectively.