Development of 3iezoelectric (nergy +arvesting

via 9ehicle 0ovements

N. Burham M. N. A. Malek A. A. Aziz
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40450 Shah Alam, Selangor
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor
hafizahburham@uitm.edu.my
nazhiimmuhammad@gmail.com anees.aziz@gmail.com

N. I. Shuhaimi A. M. Markom
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40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Cawangan Johor,Kampus Pasir
nurainizzati@uitm.edu.my Gudang 81750 Johor
arnimunira@uitm.edu.my

Abstract—Renewable energy source becomes one of A simpler molecular model is used in explaining a
consequential sector in electrical industry these days, especially piezoelectric effect as shown in Fig. 1. When exerting a
in this era of environmentally-amicable energy source. pressure on a certain material, separation of positive and
Piezoelectric transducer can generate electric by applying force negative centre of gravity of molecules produce dipoles
onto it by converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. [5] because of deformation due to stress. This explicates
In this paper present an implementation of piezoelectric energy the engendering charge or static voltage when a pressure
harvesting via vehicles movement. There are three parameters is exerted on the piezoelectric material. A voltage, with
is studied which is weight of vehicles, speed of vehicles and the opposite polarity with respect to the poling voltage, will
number of vehicles passing through the piezoelectric
be always generated when compression is experienced
transducers. The output voltage is analyzed and monitored by
Arduino UNO using serial plotter. At the end of the experiment,
along the direction of polarization [7].
the heavier weight of vehicles generates the highest voltage
which is 0.1115V/kg based on rear and front tires movement.
Furthermore, frequent number of vehicles passing through the
piezoelectric transducer also give the highest voltage. At the end
of experiment, the relationship between those parameters are
relate in order to generate voltage.

Keywords—Energy Harvesting, piezoelectric transducers,

weight of vehicles and speed of vehicles,

I. INTRODUCTION
Ecumenical warming phenomena and perpetual increase
in prices of utilizing electricity compel us to probe for
alternative ways of engendering electricity that is
environmental cordial and economical concurrently [1].
Electrical energy can be harvested by extracting, storing and
converting energy from environment like solar, wind, mini
hydro, biomass, geothermal etc. There are a lot of research
on producing electrical energy using environment resources
based on vibration[2], kinetic [3] and heat [4]. This electrical
energy normally used for small range electrical capacity.
The most transducer used to harvest and generate energy by
using a piezoelectric. Piezoelectric used to harvest and
generate electricity from mechanical energy by various
source likes foot step, vehicles movement or electrical
equipment [5].
“Piezo” is a Greek word that means pressure and
“electric” refers to electricity. In the year 1880, the Curie
brothers: Jacques and Pierre have discovered the
phenomenon called piezoelectricity. This phenomenon
characterizes the ability of a material to generate electricity
when pressure is applied upon wherein the electricity
generated is directly proportional to the applied pressure [6].
Fig. 1: Molecular Model of Piezoelectric Effect [7]
Piezoelectric transducers are used to generate electricity
from wasted mechanical energy. Energy harvesting is the
process of extracting, converting and storing energy from the
environment such as pressure, vibrations, kinetics and
temperature coming from wind, rain, waves, tides, light and
so on [8].
There are various method used to generate electricity using
piezoelectric transducer. The most method used for generating
energy using human footsteps in a staircase [6]. The linear
kinetics at the end of a lever is transmitted to freewheel
utilizing chains to rotate the wheels and run as dynamo
generator to produce electricity. This project can generate
electric between 1.5 V DC to 6 V DC.
This project proposed to design and develop a
piezoelectric energy harvesting to generate electric via
movement of vehicles on the road by manipulating a few
parameters. It is because piezoelectric transducer will generate

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electric depended on how much the pressure applied on it. So,
the weight of vehicles, speed of vehicles and frequency of
vehicles is varied in this project. At the end of the project,
relationship between pressure applied to the piezoelectric
transducers and generated energy can be discussed in details.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Piezoelectric Transducers
There are a few issued need to be considerate in order to
generate the power. The first consideration is orientation of
piezoelectric transducers to generate energy. The highest
energy can be generate using parallel structure of
piezoelectric transducer [7]. The proposed design of the Fiq. 3: Schematic diagram Arduino UNO
piezoelectric system is only inhibited to the tenacity and
arranging the number of transducers, type, and its orientation
in order to quantify output voltage of the system. C. Testing and Data Gathering
In this project, piezoelectric transducer has been
construct using two plates of wood 1foot x 1 foot each. The
base plate wood contains 25 piezoelectric transducers There are three parameters will varies in this project
arranged in 5 rows of 5 transducers each connected in which are weight of vehicles, speed of vehicles and
parallel. At the top plate wood contains 25 pieces of rubber frequency of vehicles movement. In this project, three
stoppers arranged in same mirrored position as the different model of vehicles has been tested. The testing and
transducers in the bottom plate. Double tap attached at the data gathering for this study involves gathering of
bottom of piezoelectric transducer for gave more deflection important and relevant data which are maximum and
on it and sticker guard also attached at the top on piezoelectric minimum voltage harvested from piezoelectric transducers
transducers to protect it from damage as shown in Fig. 2. and voltage across the terminal battery.

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

This part will discuss the voltage has been harvested by
manipulating aforementioned parameters. The first
parameter has been manipulated was weight of vehicles.
Fig. 4 shows the generate voltage of piezoelectric
transducer which has been displayed by Arduino UNO at
serial plotter based on different weight of vehicles which is
101, 105 and 115 kg. The voltage has been harvested at 15
s for front tire and 16.5 s for rear tire. When the rear tire
passing through the piezoelectric transducers, it starts to
Fig. 2: Top and Bottom Plate of Piezoelectric convert mechanical energy to electric form and the same
Transducers process also apply to the rear tire of vehicle. So, the voltage
rear tire was added with the voltage that produced by front
tire. Based on the graph, the heaviest vehicle will generate
B. Arduino UNO more voltage which is 1.34 V compare to 101 kg vehicle
which generate 1.12 V. According to the graph, 0.1115
Microcontroller used in this project to monitor the voltage V/kg can be generated at one time.
produced by piezoelectric and voltage at storage device
which is Li-ion battery. Arduino UNO was used for design
the monitor system for this project. Generated voltage from
piezoelectric transducer will be read by Arduino at analogue
pin and voltage produced displayed using Arduino IDE
software at serial plotter.
Piezoelectric transducers will connect to PZ1 and PZ2 pin
LTC3588. The output DC voltage from LTC3588 directly
connected to the pin A0 Arduino UNO in order to display the
harvesting voltage from movement of vehicles. The
schematic diagram for this connection shown at Fig. 3.

Fig. 4: Harvested voltage by varying weight of vehicles

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 Next, the speed of vehicle also will affect the harvested
energy from piezoelectric transducers. Based on the graph
in Fig. 5, the speed of vehicles is manipulated by 20 km/h,
30 km/h and 40 km/h. Based on the experimental result, the
average voltage that produced among the different speed of
vehicles which are 20, 30 and 40 km/h is 1.58 V. According
to previous research, the highest average voltage has been
harvested is 2 V by placing piezoelectric transducer which
has a lot of footstep in this location [1]. For harvested voltage
based on the speed of vehicles, this project was harvested less
than 0.42 V compared to footstep project. Based on the
result, this project method is better than the previous project
because the average speed or vehicles on the normal road
is 65 km/h and 110 km/h when at the highway. From the
calculation, voltage can generate for 65 and 110 km/h are
3.54 V and 5.98 V respectively. In order to get the harvested Fig. 6: Harvesting Voltage based on frequent
more voltage speed of vehicles must be more than 40 km/h. vehicles pass through the piezoelectric transducer
According to Takeshi Kasuga, the highest voltage that
can produce by 120 cm/s speed of toy car is 7.5 V [9]. In this
project, the maximum voltage that produced by transducers IV. CONCLUSION
is 1.88 V. Based on the comparison, Takeshi Kasuga As conclusion, the development of energy harvester
generated more electrical energy with percentage different using piezoelectric transducers with the monitoring
is 298.94 % due to different piezoelectric transducer used. system has been successfully develop based on vehicle
movement. The piezoelectric transducer can be generated
energy by vehicle movement in this project. In this
project, piezoelectric transducer can generate energy
until 2V when applied forcer on it by varying a few
parameters. The first parameter studied is varying the
weight of vehicles which can generate 1.34 V. Next, the
speed of vehicle which generate electric energy and the
generated electrical energy is 1.88 V at 40 km/h. Based
on calculation, the speed of vehicles is directly
proportional to the generated electrical energy. At 65
km/h speed can generate 3.54 V. For third parameter also
shows that increasing the number of vehicles also
generate more energy. Based on the weight and
frequency of vehicles, it relates to on how much pressure
applied to piezoelectric transducer. In addition, the speed
also can boost generated energy that gained from the
weight of vehicles. So, the optimal speed can be studied
Fig. 5: Harvesting voltage for different Speed. to predict the generated value. At the end of this project,
this piezoelectric transducer is suitable to be installed in
rural area to turn on the light only. So, installation cost on
The next parameter is the number of vehicles passing cabling can be reduced using this method
through these piezoelectric transducers. Fig. 6 shows the
displayed voltage generated based on the number of vehicles
passing through piezoelectric at one moment. When one ACKNOWLEDGMENT
vehicle passing through piezoelectric transducers generate
The authors would like to thank Institute of Research
1.64V maximum voltage. For two vehicles continuously
Management and Innovation (IRMI) UiTM and Ministry
through the piezoelectric at the same moment, harvesting
of Higher Education for the financial supports. This
output voltage is 2.41V and when three vehicles
research work is conducted at Faculty of Electrical
continuously through the piezoelectric transducers at the
Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM),
same moment voltage generated 3.33V maximum voltage.
Malaysia under the support of Dana Lestari 600-
Based on previous research, more footstep will generate
IRMI/5/3/LESTARI (038/2019)
more energy. So, the energy harvested was depending on the
weight of vehicles and the frequent movement applied on
piezoelectric transducer. Furthermore, the speed of vehicles
was important too in order to generate electricity. Based on
calculation, the speed 60 -100 km/h able to generate more
power instead of low speed. Based on the project has been
conducted, the frequent pressure applied to the piezoelectric
transducer will generate more power

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