Tyre Pressure Monitoring using
Piezoelectric Sensors
Guided by Asst.Prof.K.Govardhan (Senior) & Asst.Prof.S.Muthuraja (Senior)
1
SAIKUMAR.P, 2HARISHBABU.K, 3 SHAHUL HAMEED IRSHATH.J
M.Tech Sensor System Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamilnadu, India
1 2
saikumar.p2014@vit.ac.in, harishbabu.k2014@vit.ac.in,
Abstract—In the recent days most of the accidents
are due to the improper monitoring of pressure
inside the vehicle tyres. Low tyre pressure often
leads to tyre failure which may cause causalities in
severe cases. The normal tyre pressure level is
32psi. The article of 1997 reported that 90% of the
motorists never check the pressure and they are
driving with incorrectly inflated tyres. So this
makes the vehicle to consume more fuel and affects
the tyre durability and abnormal wear which leads
to suspension or steering problems. This project
deals with the low cost design of pressure sensors
to monitor the pressure in the vehicle using the
piezoelectric discs to avoid the accidents and
steering problems. This will also save the fuel
consumption when the driver is indicated with the
pressure level in the dashboard. The design
approach carried out here is using piezoelectric
sensors which are mounted over the surface of the
rim of the wheel. Whenever the piezoelectric plate
comes into contact with the surface of the road, the
pressure is applied to the piezoelectric plate and
undergoes deformation and induces a voltage
output. This voltage output is transmitted through
RF Transmitter and received in the dashboard
raises an alarm beep on various pressure levels.
Keywords: Piezoelectric sensors, RF transmitter
and Receiver, Display unit.
I. INTRODUCTION
The piezoelectric sensors works on the principle of
piezoelectric effect that is when a pressure is applied
to the quartz material it undergoes deformation and
induces a voltage output. This principle is applied in
this tyre pressure monitoring system. In recent days
silicon based sensors are developed which varies
according to the pressure level. These sensors are
fitted in the nozzle of the tyre which detects the
variation of the silicon strip when the pressure varies.
These sensors are battery operated and it has a
microcontroller unit which displays the pressure level
in the dashboard. This increases the cost and the
complexity of coding. The piezoelectric sensors
reduce the coding complexity and minimize the cost.
The op-amp, Analog to digital converters, comparator
and RF module are used in this system to reduce the
3
gulirshath@gmail.com
circuit complexity as well as to eliminate the
microcontroller unit.
A.Piezoelectric Sensors
The word piezo is derived from the greek word
“piezen” which has meaning to press. This
piezoelectric disc is made up of crystalline materials
such as quartz, manmade ceramics and some
polymers such as polyvinyl fluoride. The piezoelectric
material posses’ ferromagenetic properties. The
piezoelectric sensors are used for various sensing
purposes like measurement of strain, force, pressure
which are used in various applications in the field of
automotives and other industries. The piezoelectric
sensors works on the point pressure and not with the
surface pressure. When you apply pressure spatially
over the surface of the piezoelectric disc, there is no
variation in the crystal deformation so that the output
will be in the range of zero to few micro volts. This is
due to the pressure which applied is distributed along
the surface of the crystal which is not sufficient to
undergo deformation in the crystal lattice, however a
small lattice change occurs which yields the voltage in
few micro range. When a point pressure is applied
over the piezoelectric disc by means of tapping at a
particular point makes the pressure to distribute at that
point in the crystal lattice which makes the
deformation of the crystal and yields an output in the
range of few milli volts to volts.
Fig1. Piezoelectric Discs of various size
The various sizes of piezoelectric disc yields various
voltage levels because of variation in the crystal
geometry. These discs are applied with point pressure
to generate a voltage to be used for applications.
B.Operational Amplifier
An Operational Amplifier is used in this system to
scale down the voltage levels. In this non inverting
terminal is preferred than inverting terminal because
when the input is connected to the inverting terminal
and the gain will be resulted above 1 level. So if we
set the gain level below 1 level we can get the scaling
down of voltage levels exactly to the required format.
The operational amplifier used in this system is IC
741. The output of the piezoelectric disc is in the
range of few milli volts which is transmitted through
RF module to the receiver in the dashboard. The RF
Transmitter has four data pins which is used to
transmit the logic digitals up to the maximum of 15
digitals. In order to transmit the analog voltage levels
obtained at piezoelectric disc which is of some higher
order that is scaled down to a certain minimal range.
This process is done by the operational amplifier
which scales down the voltage to minimal range and
which can be further fed to the analog to digital
converter which converts and further connected to the
RF transmitter t transmit the voltage levels to
dashboard.
C.Analog to digital converter
The Analog to digital converter converts the analog
voltage values into digital levels. This can be done by
giving the reference voltage input to the converter.
The Analog to digital converter used here is
ADC0804. In this system we are converting the scaled
voltage levels to the digital bits and transmitting
through the RF module. The inputs range will be in
the range of milli volts in which step size can be set as
10mv to make logic 1 when the input to the ADC is
10mv. The main primary concern is that the
conversion is done before the transmission of voltage
level to the transmitter module
D.RF Tranmitter and Reciever
The Radio frequency module is to transmit the data
using antenna and the receiver receives the
information once the frequency of both transmitter
and receiver matched. Normally the transmitter and
the receiver are kept at the distance and which is the
sufficient condition to monitor any parameter
remotely from the location. The Radio frequency
module works at 433.9MHZ with 1.5-12V operation.
This operates via serial communication that is it will
transfer bit by bit of data. The output of analog to
digital converter is in the form of parallel data where
only serial data can be transmitter to the radio
frequency module. Therefore the output of analog to
digital converter is fed as an input to the Encoder
which decodes the parallel data to serial data and it is
transmitter over the antenna. The receiver is placed in
the dashboard of the vehicle which receives the serial
data and decodes to the parallel data form using
decoder. The output of the decoder is in the serial
format which is given to the comparator to raise the
beep alarm according to various conditions of
pressure inside the wheel.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Tyre Pressure monitoring using various silicon based
mems sensor is readily available in the market. These
sensors are battery operated and when it is subjected
to high tensional stress it may lead to the failure of the
device. The high tensional stress is due to the wheel
suspended to the pits and other road conditions. The
silicon based mems pressure sensor are mostly used
along with the microcontroller to process and display
the pressure level. This requires coding to the
microcontroller which affects the code complexity
and circuit complexity as well as it is not an effective
miniaturized product. In recent days the tyre pressure
monitoring system is operated with the battery and it
has to be replaced for duration of 6 months. The
piezoelectric disc is used in multi axle vehicles to
measure the overload level axle of the vehicle. In
multi axle vehicles, overloading leads to the accidents
due to loss of steering control. To avoid this, the
piezoelectric discs are mounted on the axle. The
normal axle level is measured and made as a reference
in the microcontroller. The piezoelectric disc is
continuously monitored and when the axle overload
level exceeds the reference point, it will indicate a
display in the dashboard. Nowadays this axle level
monitoring is replaced by optical and mems based
strain gauges which results the strain level induced on
the axle. This increases the cost and strain gauges are
temperature effective and it requires temperature
compensation.
III. TESTING OF PIEZOELECTRIC
DISC
The piezoelectric disc is tested with various machines
to check the durability of the disc. Since the
piezoelectric disc is placed inside the wheel and
during running condition the wheel will be subjected
to various stresses which results in the piezoelectric
disc to break due to the road pits and road conditions.
The piezoelectric disc has to withstand these internal
stresses. To know the stability of the piezoelectric
disc number of tests is carried out with the wood
pressing machine and spring press test machine.
 Fig 2. Wood pressing machine
The piezoelectric disc is placed inside the wood
pressing machine and the pressure is applied over the
piezoelectric disc. The pressure is controlled by
hydraulic and the least count of the wood pressing
machine is about 81N/cm2. When the pressure is
applied continuously within a fraction of seconds, the
piezoelectric disc induces a negative voltage. This is
due to the delayed arrangement of crystal deformation
in the piezoelectric crystals. The wood pressing
machine failed to measure the output voltage because
the pressure applied is a surface pressure and not the
point pressure. This wood pressing machine is
performed to check the durability and it is found to be
around 405 N/ cm2.This led to the problem of uneven
distribution of pressure over the piezoelectric disc.
Fig 3. Spring Testing Machine
The spring test is carried out to apply the pressure
over the piezoelectric disc uniformly which avoids the
uneven distribution of pressure over the piezoelectric
disc. The pressure applied can be set in the range of
kg units. There is no constant/ fixed and stable
reading was recorded for each different value of
pressure applied, the maximum value which showed
at the different pressure values for a fraction of
second was taken and tabulated.
Pressure applied Maximum Reading
(in N) (in mV)
1st division=81N 63
2nd division=162N 88
3rd division=243N 104
4th division=324N 156
5th division=405N 243
Table I. Spring Test Machine values to check the
durability of the piezoelectric disc
It is observed that while increasing or decreasing
applied pressure value the piezoelectric sensor
responded in a better fashion than in the case where
pressure was set/ fixed.
IV. PROPOSED BLOCK DIAGRAM
The Proposed system consists of a piezoelectric disc
mounted on the rim surface inside the wheel of the
vehicle. This design approach induces the pressure
measurement to be more effective. The op-amp 741 is
used to scale down the voltage level and the ADC is
to convert the analog voltage values into digital form.
This is fed as an input to the radio frequency
transmitter which has a encoder. The encoder encodes
the parallel data into serial data and then it is
transmitted. The receiver is placed in the dashboard
which has a decoder that decodes the serial data into
parallel data. The comparator is used to compare the
digital values and raise an alarm indication at the
dashboard to indicate the level of pressure to the
driver.
Fig 4. Block Diagram of Proposed Tyre Pressure
Monitoring system using piezoelectric sensors
V. EXPERIMENTATION
The new design approach is placing the piezoelectric
disc over the surface of the rim inside the wheel. Two
leads are taken out from the piezoelectric disc and
connected to the signal conditioning circuit.
Whenever the piezoelectric disc comes into contact
with the road surface, the internal pressure raises and
taps the piezoelectric disc which creates the voltage.
When the number of rotations per minute is carried
out by a rotating wheel, it is in the order of 18times
per minute which is not a sufficient time for the
piezoelectric disc to deform into original position.
This improper deformation leads to the generation of
negative voltage which can be eliminated. The
positive voltage generated will be in the range of milli
volts. The maximum and minimal range is 0-1500mV
for various pressure levels. The op-amp is designed
with the gain to 0-150mV range in order to transmit
through radio frequency module since it has only four
data pins for the transmission. It is converted to
transmit the high logic of 15. For this the op-amp is
used to scale down the voltage and the output of the
op-amp is fed to the input of analog to digital
converter. The analog to digital converter is given
with the reference voltage of 12v to define the step
size of 10mV. Whenever 10mV range is generated
across the input of the analog to digital converter, it
will generate logic 1 output. The output of the analog
to digital converter is fed to the four data pins of the
RF transmitter which encodes the parallel data into
serial data and transmits the digital levels. The RF
receiver is placed in the dashboard which receives and
decodes the serial data into parallel data. The parallel
data is fed to the input of comparator which compares
the pressure level and raises an alarm and led glow at
the dashboard. The various stages of pressure and the
corresponding pressure alarm levels is defined in the
table II.
Piezoelectric disc is placed over the
surface of the rim inside the wheel.
Fig 5. Piezoelectric disc position inside the wheel
over the rim surface
The above figure shows the piezoelectric disc placed
over the rim surface and inside the wheel. The number
of piezoelectric disc can be mounted on the surface of
the rim and can form a bridge circuit. But the
shortcomings of forming a bridge circuit is that
temperature compensation should be provided at one
arm of the bridge because the piezoelectric disc output
voltage varies along with the temperature which is
created inside the tire due to the change in pressure.
Fig 6. Analog to digital converter interfaced with RF
module
The above figure shows the analog to digital converter
interfaced with the RF module. The output of the
Analog to digital converter is fed to the RF module
transmitter and it is transmitted serially, the serial data
are received with the receiver and decoded to parallel
and is fed to the comparator for comparison. If the
pressure level is full in the tire , there is no internal
pressure will be created inside the tire and no pressure
is applied on the piezoelectric disc. This will induce a
small voltage level across the piezoelectric disc.
When the pressure level is medium, say 30 to 40% of
the air is exhausted from the tyre, then the internal
pressure is more or less induces a gradual level
increase in the voltage across the piezoelectric disc.
This will raise a medium alarm in the dashboard.
When the tire is fully deflated that is in the case of
puncture or abnormal condition of the tyre, the
internal pressure will be more and cause more
pressure to tap over the piezoelectric disc. This
pressure induces a large voltage level across the
piezoelectric disc and critical alarm level is indicated
in the dashboard of the user. The pressure level and
corresponding indication level is tabulated in the
table II.
Pressure level in Pressure level Indication
the wheel in the wheel level
(in psi) (in digital
values)
32 15 Normal
26-32 12-14 Medium
20-26 10-12 Low
<20 8-10 Critically
Low
Table II. Pressure level and corresponding Indication
level
VI. RESULTS
The Pressure in the tyre is varied with three stages
like fully inflated, partially inflated and fully deflated.
Various readings are observed and graph is plotted.
Fig 7. Comparison graph between the full air without
pressure and full air with pressure
Numbers of readings were taken with full air and no
pressure, whereas no pressure means the tyre is not
fitted in the vehicle. This also represents the body
mass of the vehicle is also a constituent of applying
pressure. The graph is plotted under partial air
condition say 30 to 40% of the air is exhausted from
the tyre and number of reading were taken and plotted
in the graph II.
Fig 8. Partially Filled Air Condition
The tyre is fully deflated and the pressure applied on
the piezoelectric disc is noted , tabulated and graph is
plotted in the graph III.
Fig 9.Flat tyre Condition
A comparison graph is plotted between all the three
conditions and is represented as graph IV.
Fig 10. Comparison table for all the three conditions
of pressure inside the wheel which acts on the
piezoelectric disc and the corresponding output
voltage.
The level of pressure is indicated in the dashboard and
it is raised with the LED.
Fig 11.Indication of low pressure warning in the LED
Fig 12.Specific LED glow for low pressure warning
The green LED indicating the transmitter and the
receiver frequency is matched. The critically low LED
is raised in the dashboard indicating the pressure level
is below 20psi.
VII. CONCLUSION
The new design methodology is approached in this
tyre pressure monitoring system to purely minimize
the cost and also minimizes the code complexity and
elimination of microcontroller unit. The wide band of
pressure level is monitored in the range of 0-32psi and
the corresponding output voltage level is 0-1500mV
and the digital values obtained are 0-15 logic which is
sufficient to raise the indication level. The futuristic
work can be done by displaying the pressure level
along with the indicators.
VIII. REFERENCES
1)AmbarishG.Mohapatra“Design and implementation
of diaphragm tyre pressure sensor in direct tire
pressure monitoring(TPMS)for automotive safety
applications”, International Journal of Engineering
Science and Technology, vol 3 No.8August 2011, pg
6514-6524.
2) Avinash D. Kale, Shubhada S. Thakare, Dr. D. S.
Chaudhari “ Wireless tire pressure monitoring system
for vehicles using SPI protocol , International Journal
of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering
Technology”,vol1, issue 4, june 2012, pg 89-91.
3)Afolabi A.Ogunwemimo Industrial and
Management Systems Engineering -- Dissertations
and Student Research “Economic Analysis of
Continuous Monitoring ofCommercial Truck Tire
Pressure Using Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems
(TPMS) and RFID Technologies”.
4) Nouman Naim Hasan, Adeel Arif, Muhammad
Hassam, Syed Shabeeh Ul Husnain, Usman Pervez
“Implementation of Tire Pressure Monitoring System
with Wireless Communication”