Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

KINETIC PAVEMENTS AND PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY HARVESTER

Edmar Devera, Alessandra Louise Ermita, Tristan Iraula, and Angelo Luis Ros

Department of Civil Engineering, Polytechnic University of the Philippines

February 2021
Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Introduction

Energy transformation happens everywhere. Every blowing of the wind which moves

clouds, flow of water, are evidences to this fact. Humans have been converting energy since

humans emerged, but it was only during the industrial age that energy production and

transformation took major leap.

All motions that we do generate kinetic energy but until recently, the energy made by the

countless number of vehicles that human own is being wasted every day since it has not been put

to good use. In fact, it is not being transformed to be anything of use.

Energy harvesting is more common in small scales like solar panels which can convert

energy from the sun to electricity and conversion of water movement to energy. Energy

harvesting in a macro-scale or in large scales has yet to be paid much attention. However, during

the past decade, kinetic pavements seem to get attention that it deserves.

Kinetic pavement, as stated in the first chapter, may be a sustainable and less expensive

way of generating electricity in the long run. If successful, it may not lead only to sustainable

and less expensive way of generating electricity but it will also lower the amount of greenhouse

gases present in the Earth’s atmosphere. The technology to harvest that energy on a large scale

has potentially world-changing implications, opening the possibility of generating electricity

using one of the cleanest and most abundant energy sources on the planet.
Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Number of vehicles passing EDSA

In 2018, with 367,728 vehicles traversing daily on the average, EDSA remains the

National Capital Region’s most congested road based on 2017 estimates. Vehicles that pass

through this highway account for 13.6% of the average daily traffic in Metro Manila, which is

reported at 2.7 million vehicles.

Cars make up two-thirds of the volume of traffic in EDSA, while jeepneys, UVs, taxis

and buses, make up 11.4% according to Gonzales in 2018. Below is the breakdown of the types

of vehicles that passes through the EDSA and the number of the vehicle that pass through on

average in a single day.

Among the 367,728 vehicles that passes through EDSA, cars amount to 247,527,

motorcycles amount to 69,438, taxis amount to 20,022, buses amount to 12,283, trucks amount

to 8,830, utility vehicles amounting to 7,229, and jeepneys, tricycles, and the like amounts to

2,339

Length of EDSA

The Epifanio de los Santos Avenue is the road links the North Luzon Expressway at the

Balintawak Interchange in the north to the South Luzon Expressway at the Magallanes

Interchange in the south, as well as the major financial districts of Makati Central Business

District, Ortigas Center, and Araneta Center. It is the longest and the most congested highway in

the metropolis, stretching some 23.8 kilometers (14.8 mi), Wikipedia (2021). With this much

road, lots of energy can be generated. If successful, even larger projects on transforming regular

roads to kinetic pavements will revolutionize the way we use roads in the future.
Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

How electrical energy is harvested

To collect the ambient energy from the vehicles on a road, we need to convert road

vibration, i.e., mechanical energy, into electrical energy. According to Song et al. in 2016, there

are three possible methods for performing this conversion: electromagnetics, electrostatics, and

piezoelectricity.

Various materials and transduction mechanisms can convert vibratory energy to useful

electrical energy, such as piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic generators.

Piezoelectric transducers, with their inherent electromechanical coupling and high-power density

compared to electromagnetic and electrostatic transducers, have been widely explored to

generate power from vibration energy sources, according to Safaei et al. in 2016.

Types of Piezometers

According to Song et al. in 2016, an electromagnetic energy harvester generates

electricity from induced current in magnetic fields. It uses permanent magnets and coils of

electrical wire which require a spacious room in the harvesting module and a complex

mechanical structure. The electrostatics energy harvester captures sudden static electricity which

is difficult to store and has limited application owing to its low current.

On the other hand, piezoelectric energy harvesters have the widest range of output power

density and as well as the simplest structure among the three methods of harvesting mechanical

energy. This piezoelectric energy harvesting technology is gaining significant research interest

and has been applied for harvesting energy from human bodies, energy harvesting shoes, and

sidewalk tiles.
Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

Thus, using the piezoelectric effect to harvest energy from road traffic could be a new

and reliable macro-energy source. Many studies have considered different types of road energy

harvester designs. Most studies have used a bulk piezoelectric ceramic owing to its structural

simplicity and high output power. However, bulk ceramic is very fragile and expensive; factors

which must be considered when implementing harvesters under a road.

In this study, we designed and optimized a piezoelectric energy harvester for a busy

roadway using piezoelectric cantilever beams which comprise piezoelectric ceramic layers and

substrate layers. The substrates provide increased durability to the ceramic beams. Therefore, the

piezoelectric beams are more appropriate for use in road energy harvesters. We constructed the

piezoelectric energy harvester by considering important environmental conditions and design

constraints and maximized its output power by conducted impedance matching to optimize the

piezoelectric circuits.

Amount of electricity produced

According to the results of the study found by Fatima et al. in 2013, considering the mass

of a vehicle moving over the speed breaker, which is approximately 300 kilograms, the height of

speed break at 10 centimeters, taking note that work done is equal to force times distance. Force

is equal to the weight of the body which is equal to 300 kilograms multiplied by the gravitational

constant, g totaling to 2943 Newtons. The power developed by 1 vehicle passing over the speed

breaker for one minute is 4.905 watts. By using the data gathered, the researcher was able to

calculate that in one hour, 294.3 watts can be generated which is 7063.2 watts in a day (7.0632

kW).
Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

According to a study conducted by Smoker et al. in 2012, he presented a piezoelectric

harvester architecture in order to scavenge power from standing waves generated in a

thermoacoustic engine. The thermo-acoustic-piezoelectric engine consists of a heat cavity, stack,

resonator tube, Helmholtz resonator cavity, and piezoelectric diaphragm. Acoustic waves

amplified by the Helmholtz resonator were harnessed by the piezoelectric diaphragm placed on

the outlet of the resonator. Experimental results showed that 0.128 mW of power could be

generated from 44.82 W of input thermal energy with an overall conversion efficiency of 0.000

28%.

Song et al. designed and manufactured an energy harvester that collects energy from road

traffic using the piezoelectric effect. One 30 × 30 × 10 cm 3 harvesting module contains 48

piezoelectric cantilever beams, where the surface area of a beam is 40 × 60 mm 2. The harvesters

are designed for implementation under 5-cm-thick asphalt. The asphalt and the harvester will

have a total height of 15 cm, which is the conventional pavement thickness for Korean highways.

The results from the study conducted by Song et al. in 2016 shows that one 15 × 15 × 10

cm3 energy harvester which comprises one-fourth of the harvesting module, can generate an

output power of 184 µW with a power density is 8.19 mW/m 2 . Thus, the output power of a full-

scale harvesting module is expected to be 736 µW. If there are 600 vehicles passing the harvester

per hour, the total output energy density for an hour will be 4.91 Wh/m 2. If we could install

harvesters along a 1-km road of two straight lines, we could generate a total output energy of

2.95 kWh per hour assuming a constant rate of 600 vehicles on the road per hour, considering a

vehicle has wheels on both the left and right sides.

Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester

It should be noted that all these studies included in the related literature are done in small

scales and studies conducted in large scales are yet to be done. It might take decades for someone

to take initiative or for someone capable of financing to take interest on it.

It should also be taken in account that the environmental and road conditions are adjusted

to lab-scale to be able to get quantifiable values, demonstrations and further studies using actual

road conditions are required for the further confirmation of the piezoelectric harvesters.

References:

Fatima, N., & Mustafa, J. (2016). Production of electricity by the method of road power

generation [PDF].

Rosa, M., & De Marqui, C., Jr. (2014). Modeling and Analysis of a Piezoelectric Energy

Harvester with Varying Cross-Sectional Area [PDF]. São Paulo: Hindawi Publishing

Corporation.

Safaei, M., Sodano, H. A., & Anton, S. R. (2019). A review of energy harvesting using

piezoelectric materials: State-of-the-art a decade later (2008–2018) [PDF]. IOP Publishing

Ltd.

Yewon, S., Jeong-Hoon, K., Sungjoo, H., & Ji-Young, C. (2016). Road energy harvester

designed as a macro-power source using the piezoelectric effect [PDF].

Kinetic Pavements and Piezoelectric Energy Harvester