Properties Analysis of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters from Pavement Vibration

A mathematic model is built for electric energy harvesting from pavement vibration.The piezoelectric harvester properties for savaging pavement vibration are presented.The effects of structural parameters and buried depth on electric harvesting and pavement deformation are analyzed by the finite element method.The results show that the deeper a harvester is located under the pavement,the more electric power can be harvested and the less deformation the road is.Meanwhile,the harvested electricity and road deformation increase with increase of diameter and thickness of piezoelectric ceramic plate.To take a harvester with a diameter of 30 mm and thickness of 5 mm as example,when it is buried under 40 mm pavement and affected by the standard wheel load of 0.7 MPa at 15 Hz,the electric power of 0.42 mW can be obtained.