A lever-type piezoelectric energy harvester with deformation-guiding mechanism for electric vehicle charging station on smart road

To meet the increasing demand for electric vehicles, this paper presents a novel concept to enhance the energy generation performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters used as charging stations on roads. A lever-type piezoelectric energy harvester with a deformation-guiding mechanism was designed and fabricated to overcome the existing limitations of low electrical output and low durability of piezoelectricity under extremely low road displacement conditions of 1 mm. The proposed harvester achieved a maximum output power of 60.3 mW at a load resistance of 50 k Omega under an input displacement of 1 mm. Thus, the module's electrical performance was significantly higher than that obtained in previous similar studies. The proposed harvester had 467% higher output power than the previously proposed vibration type road energy harvester. For the energy storage test, a 0.08 F supercapacitor was charged up to 5.09 V (1 J) in 170 min. The results prove that the energy generated by the proposed harvester can be potentially used as a power source for electric vehicles on smart roads beyond the power supply of various sensor systems on the road. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study presents a novel concept to enhance the energy generation performance of piezoelectric energy harvesters used as charging stations on roads, overcoming the limitations of low electrical output and durability under extremely low road displacement conditions. The proposed lever-type piezoelectric energy harvester achieved significantly higher electrical performance compared to previous studies, with 467% higher output power than vibration type road energy harvesters. The results demonstrate that the energy generated by the proposed harvester can potentially be used as a power source for electric vehicles on smart roads.