A Pavement Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Small Input Displacements

In order to collect mechanical energy from human motions on pavement without an obvious disturbance, a piezoelectric harvester for small displacement is proposed. A seesaw mechanism is utilized to transmit the pressure displacement to piezoelectric beams. Benefitting from the superiority of used axially deformed beams, the designed scheme can produce a higher voltage than the ones based on the conventional bending cantilever. Favorable electrical energy is achieved by the manufactured prototype under a displacement lower than 1 mm. Two practical applications, including charging a capacitor and powering an environmental sensing node, demonstrate the feasibility of this energy harvester in supplying power for engineering devices. The proposed device shows a favorable capacity to capture energy from humans walking on pavements. Also, this category of axially deformed beam could provide ideas for developing piezoelectric harvesters under small displacements.