Harvesting Vibrational Energy Due to Intermodal Systems Via Nano Coated Piezo Electric Devices

Vibrational energy resulting from intermodal transport systems can be recovered through the use of energy harvesting system consisting of lead zirconium titanate (PZT) piezo electric material as the primary energy harvesting component. The ability of traditional PZT piezo electric materials can be enhanced to generate substantially more power by using special coatings made of nano-coating mixtures. It can be demonstrated that the enhanced system can be utilized to power intermodal transport safety lighting systems from roadway vibrations. The objectives of the project was achieved by performing three tasks; design and construction of the special nano coated piezo electric energy harvester, testing and enhancement of the newly designed and constructed system in the lab and implementation of the energy harvesting system to power a lighting system. Nano-coated PZT energy harvesting system showed substantial and explicit improvement as compared to non-coated PZT energy harvesting system. Also, in the experimental analysis of this project work, rectangular cantilever system performed substantially better than trapezoidal and triangular cantilever systems in terms of power harvesting capability. To incorporate this power harvesting system for the application to power LED bulbs, more number of PZTs was integrated into the system. The new multi nano-coated PZT composite cantilever system with six PZT composites was designed and constructed. This power output charged totally discharged 3.6 Volts NiMH Battery to 3.054 Volts in two hours. The charged battery easily lighted the LED bulb in the laboratory.