Study on Harvesting Energy from Pavement Based on Piezoelectric Effects

This paper presents the initial research results of harvesting energy from asphalt pavement based on piezoelectric effects.There are two mechanical energies existing in pavement: stress and vibration driven energy.Approximately 0.664 J of work is done by a standard axle load at a speed of 60 km/h in a depth of 40 mm on asphalt pavement.A vibration frequency of 15 Hz is measured in the field ofasphalt pavement.A 254 V of potential is measured from the cymbal array in the initial laboratory test conducted under a 0.7 MPa 20 Hz half-sine load.The results verify the feasibility of harvesting energy from the pavement.The performance of the transducers is related to the energy converting efficiency,storage ability,fatigue life,and the stiffness matching level with the pavement.The energy converting efficiency of the transducers is approximately 5%~30% on asphalt pavement.The electric potential is approximately 97.33 V of the design Cymbal with a diameter of 32 mm.The maximum output power is approximately 1.2 mW at a vehicle load of 20 Hz.