Multi-physics optimisation of an energy harvester device for automotive application

Purpose – Supplying remote wireless sensors is not an easy task if the site where the device is located is not easily accessible. In order to obtain direct measurements of the road-vehicle interactions, sensors must be placed inside the tyre environment thus a power supply must be available for their working there without any wire connection with the car main power. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – An electro-mechanical energy harvester has thus been developed for supplying an automotive wireless sensor of pressure, temperature and acceleration to be placed on the inner line of a tyre. The primary energy source is the vibrations or variable accelerations imposed to the device and induced in the tyre by the wheeling. Findings – The harvester has been designed by means of a multi-physics optimisation based on an integrated electromagnetic-mechanical circuit simulator. Thus an automated optimisation of the device with respect to volume constraints, magnets dimensions, ind...