In this paper, we perform design parameter study and design optimization for a piezoelectric energy harvester considering vehicle speed variation. Initially, a FEM model using ANSYS is developed to appraise the performance of a piezoelectric harvester in a rotating tire. The energy harvester proposed here uses the vertical deformation at contact patch area from the car weight and centrifugal acceleration. This harvester is composed of a beam which is clamped at both ends and a piezoelectric material is attached on the top of that. The piezoelectric material possesses the 31 mode of transduction in which the direction of applied field is perpendicular to that of the electric field. To optimize the harvester performance, we would change the geometrical parameters of the harvester to obtain the maximum power. One of the main challenges in the design process is obtaining the required power while considering the constraints for harvester weight and volume. These two concerns are addressed in this paper. Since the final goal of this study is the development of an energy harvester with a wireless sensor system installed in a real car, the real time data for varied velocity of a vehicle are taken into account for power measurements. This study concludes that the proposed design is applicable to wireless tire sensor systems.

Date Published: 1 April 2016
PDF: 19 pages
Proc. SPIE 9806, Smart Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation for Energy Systems 2016, 98060Z (1 April 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2219567

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9806:
Smart Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation for Energy Systems 2016
Norbert G. Meyendorf; Theodoros E. Matikas; Kara J. Peters, Editor(s)