A Self-Contained Roadway Kinetic Energy Harvesting System for Energy Recovery

Kinetic Energy Harvesting (KEH) systems have been applied to various maintenance-free electronic devices. One of the potential applications is harvesting a decent amount of kinetic energy generated by the road vehicles. Although researches have been conducted on the roadway KEH system, it is worthwhile to improve the system in order to convert more energy without worsening the driving experience. This work consists of design of the piezoelectric KEH transducer (Cymbal transducer), and improvement of the KEH circuit. The optimal geometry of each Cymbal unit is determined by the utilization of Finite Element Analysis. After studying several recently introduced piezoelectric KEH circuit topologies, a preferred topology has been adopted for a novel KEH circuit design. A voltage peak detection function and an energy storage unit voltage hysteresis function have been included in the circuit. The circuit has demonstrated a higher energy harvesting efficiency compared to competitors during tests.