A High-efficiency Road Energy Harvester Based on a Chessboard Sliding Plate Using Semi-metal Friction Materials for Self-powered Applications in Road Traffic

Author(s):  
Lingfei Qi ◽  
Hongye Pan ◽  
Shehar Bano ◽  
Miankuan Zhu ◽  
Jizong Liu ◽  
...  
Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Han ◽  
Kwi-Il Park ◽  
Chang Jeong

Improvement of energy harvesting performance from flexible thin film-based energy harvesters is essential to accomplish future self-powered electronics and sensor systems. In particular, the integration of harvesting signals should be established as a single device configuration without complicated device connections or expensive methodologies. In this research, we study the dual-film structures of the flexible PZT film energy harvester experimentally and theoretically to propose an effective principle for integrating energy harvesting signals. Laser lift-off (LLO) processes are used for fabrication because this is known as the most efficient technology for flexible high-performance energy harvesters. We develop two different device structures using the multistep LLO: a stacked structure and a double-faced (bimorph) structure. Although both structures are well demonstrated without serious material degradation, the stacked structure is not efficient for energy harvesting due to the ineffectively applied strain to the piezoelectric film in bending. This phenomenon stems from differences in position of mechanical neutral planes, which is investigated by finite element analysis and calculation. Finally, effectively integrated performance is achieved by a bimorph dual-film-structured flexible energy harvester. Our study will foster the development of various structures in flexible energy harvesters towards self-powered sensor applications with high efficiency.


2013 ◽  
Vol 805-806 ◽  
pp. 477-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Feng Chao ◽  
Zu Tao Zhang

Green, safe and efficient road energy harvesting is a challenge for road traffic application. In this paper, we present a novel road energy harvester system based on sliding deceleration design and model for the purposes of energy harvesting involved in road traffic. The main components of the system consist of sliding deceleration mechanism, rack and pinion transmission, mechanical motion rectifier, which are used to generate electricity from the vibration of the sliding plate excited by vehicles passing by. Compared with the conventional road harvester using the speed bump, the proposed road energy harvester system has potential advantages in reducing the dependence on the speed bump, increasing the safety of vehicle when passing by and expanding its application. The final experimental results show the validity of our method under simulation condition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 115022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minfeng Tang ◽  
Qihui Guan ◽  
Xiaoping Wu ◽  
Xiaohui Zeng ◽  
Zutao Zhang ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pashupati R. Adhikari ◽  
Nishat T. Tasneem ◽  
Russell C. Reid ◽  
Ifana Mahbub

AbstractIncreasing demand for self-powered wearable sensors has spurred an urgent need to develop energy harvesting systems that can reliably and sufficiently power these devices. Within the last decade, reverse electrowetting-on-dielectric (REWOD)-based mechanical motion energy harvesting has been developed, where an electrolyte is modulated (repeatedly squeezed) between two dissimilar electrodes under an externally applied mechanical force to generate an AC current. In this work, we explored various combinations of electrolyte concentrations, dielectrics, and dielectric thicknesses to generate maximum output power employing REWOD energy harvester. With the objective of implementing a fully self-powered wearable sensor, a “zero applied-bias-voltage” approach was adopted. Three different concentrations of sodium chloride aqueous solutions (NaCl-0.1 M, NaCl-0.5 M, and NaCl-1.0 M) were used as electrolytes. Likewise, electrodes were fabricated with three different dielectric thicknesses (100 nm, 150 nm, and 200 nm) of Al2O3 and SiO2 with an additional layer of CYTOP for surface hydrophobicity. The REWOD energy harvester and its electrode–electrolyte layers were modeled using lumped components that include a resistor, a capacitor, and a current source representing the harvester. Without using any external bias voltage, AC current generation with a power density of 53.3 nW/cm2 was demonstrated at an external excitation frequency of 3 Hz with an optimal external load. The experimental results were analytically verified using the derived theoretical model. Superior performance of the harvester in terms of the figure-of-merit comparing previously reported works is demonstrated. The novelty of this work lies in the combination of an analytical modeling method and experimental validation that together can be used to increase the REWOD harvested power extensively without requiring any external bias voltage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6831
Author(s):  
Yue Chen ◽  
Jian Lu

With the rapid development of road traffic, real-time vehicle counting is very important in the construction of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). Compared with traditional technologies, the video-based method for vehicle counting shows great importance and huge advantages in its low cost, high efficiency, and flexibility. However, many methods find difficulty in balancing the accuracy and complexity of the algorithm. For example, compared with traditional and simple methods, deep learning methods may achieve higher precision, but they also greatly increase the complexity of the algorithm. In addition to that, most of the methods only work under one mode of color, which is a waste of available information. Considering the above, a multi-loop vehicle-counting method under gray mode and RGB mode was proposed in this paper. Under gray and RGB modes, the moving vehicle can be detected more completely; with the help of multiple loops, vehicle counting could better deal with different influencing factors, such as driving behavior, traffic environment, shooting angle, etc. The experimental results show that the proposed method is able to count vehicles with more than 98.5% accuracy while dealing with different road scenes.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Nianying Wang ◽  
Ruofeng Han ◽  
Changnan Chen ◽  
Jiebin Gu ◽  
Xinxin Li

A silicon-chip based double-deck three-dimensional (3D) solenoidal electromagnetic (EM) kinetic energy harvester is developed to convert low-frequency (<100 Hz) vibrational energy into electricity with high efficiency. With wafer-level micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication to form a metal casting mold and the following casting technique to rapidly (within minutes) fill molten ZnAl alloy into the pre-micromachined silicon mold, the 300-turn solenoid coils (150 turns for either inner solenoid or outer solenoid) are fabricated in silicon wafers for saw dicing into chips. A cylindrical permanent magnet is inserted into a pre-etched channel for sliding upon external vibration, which is surrounded by the solenoids. The size of the harvester chip is as small as 10.58 mm × 2.06 mm × 2.55 mm. The internal resistance of the solenoids is about 17.9 Ω. The maximum peak-to-peak voltage and average power output are measured as 120.4 mV and 43.7 μW. The EM energy harvester shows great improvement in power density, which is 786 μW/cm3 and the normalized power density is 98.3 μW/cm3/g. The EM energy harvester is verified by experiment to be able to generate electricity through various human body movements of walking, running and jumping. The wafer-level fabricated chip-style solenoidal EM harvesters are advantageous in uniform performance, small size and volume applications.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3151
Author(s):  
Shuo Yang ◽  
Bin Wu ◽  
Xiucheng Liu ◽  
Mingzhi Li ◽  
Heying Wang ◽  
...  

In this study, a novel piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) based on the array composite spherical particle chain was constructed and explored in detail through simulation and experimental verification. The power test of the PEH based on array composite particle chains in the self-powered system was realized. Firstly, the model of PEH based on the composite spherical particle chain was constructed to theoretically realize the collection, transformation, and storage of impact energy, and the advantages of a composite particle chain in the field of piezoelectric energy harvesting were verified. Secondly, an experimental system was established to test the performance of the PEH, including the stability of the system under a continuous impact load, the power adjustment under different resistances, and the influence of the number of particle chains on the energy harvesting efficiency. Finally, a self-powered supply system was established with the PEH composed of three composite particle chains to realize the power supply of the microelectronic components. This paper presents a method of collecting impact energy based on particle chain structure, and lays an experimental foundation for the application of a composite particle chain in the field of piezoelectric energy harvesting.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 803
Author(s):  
Zhongjie Li ◽  
Chuanfu Xin ◽  
Yan Peng ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Jun Luo ◽  
...  

A novel hybridization scheme is proposed with electromagnetic transduction to improve the power density of piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) in this paper. Based on the basic cantilever piezoelectric energy harvester (BC-PEH) composed of a mass block, a piezoelectric patch, and a cantilever beam, we replaced the mass block by a magnet array and added a coil array to form the hybrid energy harvester. To enhance the output power of the electromagnetic energy harvester (EMEH), we utilized an alternating magnet array. Then, to compare the power density of the hybrid harvester and BC-PEH, the experiments of output power were conducted. According to the experimental results, the power densities of the hybrid harvester and BC-PEH are, respectively, 3.53 mW/cm3 and 5.14 μW/cm3 under the conditions of 18.6 Hz and 0.3 g. Therefore, the power density of the hybrid harvester is 686 times as high as that of the BC-PEH, which verified the power density improvement of PEH via a hybridization scheme with EMEH. Additionally, the hybrid harvester exhibits better performance for charging capacitors, such as charging a 2.2 mF capacitor to 8 V within 17 s. It is of great significance to further develop self-powered devices.


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