Feasibility of piezoelectric energy harvesting from real-life city flyover: a case study

The applications of wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) are rapidly growing in civil infrastructures, yet constrained by batteries with the short lifespan. Providing an alternative power source will undoubtedly expand the application for WSNs and other technologies such as energy harvesting. This paper presents a basic field study conducted on a city flyover to explore the possibility of piezoelectric energy harvesting from bridge vibrations. A piezoelectric energy harvester based on Micro Fiber Composite (MFC) has fabricated. The maximum voltage and average power generated by stainless steel PEH with surface bonded MFC patch was found to be 1.34 V and 0.784 mu W respectively. Finally, the practical application of energy harvested achieved by lighting an LED with vibration energy.