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.