Effect of Traffic Flow on Characteristics of Piezoelectric Harvesting Unit

To protect dwindling coal and oil resources and open up a new way of renewable green energy, the technology of piezoelectric harvesting from pavement is proposed. Effect of traffic flow, including contact pressure and speed of a vehicle, on characteristics of a piezoelectric harvesting unit is discussed with the finite element method. Results show that the harvested electric power is approximately linear with the contact pressure and a vehicle’s speed. The contact pressure takes more effect on the harvested electric power and stress on pavement than the vehicle’s speed. A PHU of 280*280*20mm can harvest about 10mJ electric power when the contact pressure is 0.85MPa. That shows that application of the piezoelectric harvesting unit has very nice optimistic prospects.