Waste to Energy: Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting from Vehicular Movements

Abstract

Wireless sensor technology used for continuous structural health monitoring (SHM) of the road infrastructure has increased the usability as well as the capability of data collection. However, electrochemical batteries are the main power source for these wireless sensors but they have to be replaced or charged regularly. For efficient usability of this, wireless health monitoring systems can efficiently self-sustain via an energy source. The solution lies in piezoelectric energy harvesting from road pavement itself using the mechanical energy generated by moving traffic. In this paper, a prototype for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) has been developed utilizing the d33 mode of piezosensors, which converts the vehicular motion energy into electrical energy. Testing of prototype PEH has been conducted by fixing it on road surface to carry out a comprehensive parametric study with varying pavement surface, weight of vehicle, and speed of vehicle on the voltage and power output. It is found that power generated from PEH surface bonded on concrete surface is approximately 10% higher as compared to bitumen pavement, and it is also increasing with the increase in speed and weight of vehicle. Maximum open-circuit voltage of 82 V and peak power output of approximately 2.8 mW, whereas maximum average power output of 0.25 mW is generated with a truck weighing 7 Ton at speed of 40 km/h on concrete surface using the 1 MΩ load resistance circuit. Maximum energy of 0.72 μJ was stored in a 10 μF capacitor with single pass of a vehicle.