Theoretical Modeling on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting from Bridges Considering Roadway Surface Irregularities

In order to keep bridge safe and more durable, wireless sensors have been widely applied in bridge health monitoring. It is an engineering challenge to provide inexhaustible energy to wireless sensors. In this work, we investigated piezoelectric energy harvesting from bridge's vibration due to moving vehicles. The energy harvester and the bridge are modeled as a cantilever beam and a simply-supported beam, respectively, with Euler-Bernoulli beam assumption. Vehicle moves on the bridge is modeled as a mass. The road surface irregularity was considered in calculating the response of the bridge. The resulting expressions for the coupled mechanical response and the electrical outputs are then derived using finite mode transform method. Additionally, a numerical parametric study is conducted to highlight the effects of the velocity, installing position of the harvester and circuit resistance on energy harvesting. Numerical results indicate that the velocity of the vehicle and road irregularity have a strong influence on piezoelectric energy harvesting. An appropriate designed piezoelectric energy harvester can be used to power a wireless sensor node.