Self-sustaining super car

Abstract

There is an ever-increasing demand for energy due to the growth of population across the world. This scenario necessitates alternative, efficient and sustainable energy sources to serve the current needs, without affecting abilities to meet future generation needs. Piezoelectricity is a widely researched sustainable energy source. Various forms of piezoelectric materials have been used to harvest the energy from vibration, repetitive strikes and bending of structures. This paper discusses different piezoelectric materials used in tires of commercial vehicles to harvest energy that can be used to charge batteries to power the vehicle and its electric sensors. Different techniques of energy harvesting are explored using the highly bendable piezoelectric elements including PVDF and PZT. The energy harvesting relies on the deformation of tire tread-walls and side-walls when the vehicle weight acts on it. The adopted methods are compared to analyse their effectiveness in terms of power production capacity.