title: Effectiveness Testing of a Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for an Automobile Wheel Using Stochastic Resonance.
abstract: The collection of clean power from ambient vibrations is considered a promising method for energy harvesting. For the case of wheel rotation, the present study investigates the effectiveness of a piezoelectric energy harvester, with the application of stochastic resonance to optimize the efficiency of energy harvesting. It is hypothesized that when the wheel rotates at variable speeds, the energy harvester is subjected to on-road noise as ambient excitations and a tangentially acting gravity force as a periodic modulation force, which can stimulate stochastic resonance. The energy harvester was miniaturized with a bistable cantilever structure, and the on-road noise was measured for the implementation of a vibrator in an experimental setting. A validation experiment revealed that the harvesting system was optimized to capture power that was approximately 12 times that captured under only on-road noise excitation and 50 times that captured under only the periodic gravity force. Moreover, the investigation of up-sweep excitations with increasing rotational frequency confirmed that stochastic resonance is effective in optimizing the performance of the energy harvester, with a certain bandwidth of vehicle speeds. An actual-vehicle experiment validates that the prototype harvester using stochastic resonance is capable of improving power generation performance for practical tire application.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan. zysgluck@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yunshun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan. topzrc@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Rencheng
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16, Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan. kshimono@go.tuat.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimono
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan. tkaizuka@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaizuka
authors.affiliation: Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan. knakano@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kimihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakano
keywords: nonlinear bistable structure; piezoelectric; stochastic resonance; tire pressure detection; wheel energy harvesting