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ENERGY HARVESTING USING KINETIC ENERGY OF
VEHICLES
Mirsad Hyder Shah
Ex-Fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering, DHA Sua University. Karachi, (Pakistan).
E-mail: itsmirsadhyder@yahoo.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2476-5887
Gasim Othman Alandjani
Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering Department. Yanbu University College, Yanbu Industrial City,
(Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
E-mail: alandjanig@rcyi.edu.sa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0321-7013
Maryam Asghar
Ex-Fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering, DHA Sua University. Karachi, (Pakistan).
E-mail: maryamasghar1998@gmail.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5356-7818
Recepción:
27/02/2020
Aceptación:
07/05/2020
Publicación:
15/06/2020
Citación sugerida:
Shah, M. H., Alandjani, G. O., y Ashgar, M. (2020). Energy harvesting using kinetic energy of vehicles. 3C Tecnología.
Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme, 9(2), 113-126. http://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno/2020.v9n2e34.113-126
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ABSTRACT
With the increasing global energy demand, clean and aordable sources of energy are being adopted
over time. Road Power Generation (RPG) is thus an alternate to conventional electricity generation.
RPG technologies generate electrical power from vehicles by harnessing their kinetic energy. The most
common RPG technology is RPG by speed breaker mechanism. However, this paper will discuss the
construction of a novel Electro-Mechanical system which can be employed on the surface of a road and
thus can produce electricity of up to six kilowatts per day. A vehicle induces reciprocating linear motion
into the RPG ip plates which is then converted to rotary motion via rack and pinion. This angular
motion is converted to electricity via a PMDC generator which can be used to power streetlights. This
method of generating electricity is called RPG by ip plate mechanism or RPG by reciprocating linear
motion.
KEYWORDS
Flip plate mechanism, Road power generation, Energy harvesting, Rack and Pinion, Reciprocating
Linear Motion, Kinetic Energy of Vehicles.
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1. INTRODUCTION
The need of alternate energy sources is not a debate but a necessity in this modern era. The demand
of clean and aordable energy sources led to the breakthrough of renewable energy sources. RPG is a
similar advancement which can be argued to be a green source of energy. With the increasing number
of cars on roads, RPG should be the base of smart cities.
Previous RPG methods have not been successful because of the following reasons:
• They require the vehicles to slow down their movement because they have the characteristics of
a speed breaker.
• The wear and tear of the RPG unit requires substantial maintenance; specically the springs.
• The safety of the vehicles to step on these units is a major challenge.
RPG by ip plate mechanism addresses the above issues signicantly. This foot unit utilizes the hortizontal
stroke of the vehicle and as a result; the vehicles do not have to slow down anymore. The maintenance
of the RPG unit is very easy, and any malfunction does not endanger the vehicle above.
1.1. LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1.1. RPG BY PIEZOELECTRIC MATERIAL
The piezoelectric material as discussed above is a handy way to generate electricity but has several
drawbacks when applied to the concept of RPG (Lee et al., 2010).
• Sound waves bend the piezoelectric material, creating a changing voltage.
• Crystal is prone to crack if overstressed.
• It may get aected by long use at high temperatures.
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1.1.2. RPG BY SPEED BREAKERS
Road Power generation by speed breakers is the most common RPG method as of now, but it also has
several drawbacks (Rao, Kumar, & Suresh, 2014):
• Cannot be installed on main roads or highways since it requires the car to stop.
• If too much pressure is applied the spring can deform.
• If too less pressure is applied, the unit may not produce any electricity.
1.1.3. RPG BY HARNESSING THE WASTED HEAT ENERGY
This type of road power generation is a prediction made in the domain of RPG. It can be set up by
employing heat absorbing material to capture the wasted heat energy of tires. It is predicted to have the
following pitfalls:
• Very high setup cost.
• Material quality is very rare.
• High maintenance cost.
2. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH
The RPG unit is 4 foot wide, 3 foot long and 3 foot high in structural dimension. The frame which holds
everything in place is made up of high tensile steel or can be made of any material with high stress
tolerance. It has the following parts:
2.1. FLIP PLATES
First, let us discuss the dimensions of the ip plates. A foot, checkered, mild steel sheet with a gauge of
10 mm was cut to achieve a special design as shown in Figure 1. As a result, the rectangular sheet was
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transformed into two female (Flip plate A and Flip plate C) and one male ip plate (Flip plate B). The
two female ip plates with dimensions of inches were welded at the corners of the frame. The male ip
plate or the moving plate was inches in dimension. The female ip plates had teeth of inches while the
male ip plate’s teeth dimensions were inches.
Second, four springs at positions A1-A2, B1-B2, C1-C2 and D1-D2 hold the ip plate B and ip plate
C together. As a result, a distance of 5 cm is achieved between the ip plate A and ip plate B under
normal circumstances.
Third, to minimize the friction employed and to smoothen the male ip plate’s movement; small wheeled
cars were tightened with the male ip plate at positions E,F,G and H through nuts and bolts. These small
wheeled cars were placed inside a rack and tightened at the top of the frame.
With this arrangement, when we drag the male ip plate towards the female ip plate, it would roll over
the frame and this movement will be stored as elastic potential energy in the spring. Finally when we let
go of the male ip plate, it would come back to its original position.
Figure 1. Detailed dimensions of ip plates.
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2.2. UPPER SHAFT
The purpose of this shaft is to produce rotary motion from the linear motion of the ip plate. To
interconnect the ip plate system with the upper shaft, three racks were placed directly upon three
pinions which were mounted on the shaft. These racks were welded under Flip plate B at equi-distant
positions and placed directly upon the upper shaft. Each of these racks had 64 teeth, were 12 inches in
diameter and had a gauge of 3 inches.
The upper shaft had a 20 mm gauge and had 3 circular pinions mounted on it. Each pinion had 64
teeth, a diameter of 5 inches and thickness same as that of the rack. Each pinion had a clutch bearing
tted at the center and then passed through the 20mm shaft. The shaft also has a type A sprocket
mounted on it with 66 teeth. The shaft was placed just below the rack arrangements by the means of
pillow blocks and tted in the RPG unit.
Figure 2. Picture of racks.
Figure 3. Picture of Pinion.
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2.3. LOWER SHAFT
The purpose of this shaft is to couple the RPG unit with the Generator. To interconnect the upper and
the lower shaft, a type B sprocket is mounted on the lower shaft and connected via a chain drive with the
type A sprocket with 22 teeth.
The lower shaft is 20mm in gauge and consists of a 10kg ywheel having a diameter of 10 inches.
Furthermore, to transfer the energy of this shaft to the DC generator, one spur gear is also mounted on
the lower shaft. This shaft was also held using pillow blocks and tted in the RPG unit.
2.4. POWER GENERATION AND STORAGE
The other spur gear was tted on the shaft of a 24V, 1050 rpm, 1.1 kW PMDC generator. After the
generator does some useful work, the voltage produced was fed to a buck/boost converter. This buck-
boost converter steps up or down the input voltage to a constant 13V DC output. This voltage was then
fed to a charge controller which cuts o the supply once the battery is fully charged.
An Arduino Uno was connected to a voltage sensor module and a current sensor module to monitor the
average energy production per vehicle.
Table 1. Comparison of Generator characteristics.
GENERATORS
SPEED
REGULATION
STARTING TORQUE OTHER FACTORS.
DC SHUNT Good Poor
Field winding can be separately
excited or same as Armature.
Expensive
DC SERIES Good
Depends upon
armature Resistance
Cannot be used when constant
speed is required.
DC COMPOUND Good Good Very expensive
PMDC Good High Smaller in size
AC GENERATORS
None in
Synchronous
High
Requires VFD or inverters.
Cost is high. Weighs more
Source: (Edvard, 2015).
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3. WORKING OF THE RPG UNIT
The RPG unit is placed on the same level as the road surface. When a moving car runs over the RPG
unit, the male ip plate is displaced 5 cm to the female ip plate. This displacement causes potential
energy to be stored in the springs. When the spring releases that stored energy (by bringing the male
ip plate back to its original position), the racks rotate the pinions by a circumference of 5 cm. This
rotation induces a unidirectional rotation in the upper shaft, since the pinions have clutch bearings at
their centers. As a result, a uniform, unidirectional, rotation is produced (Chandwani, Patel, & Kothari,
2017).
This rotation in the upper shaft is transferred to the lower shaft by means of a chain drive sprocket. Since
torque and angular velocity are inversely proportional, the upper shaft will have high torque and low
angular velocity compared to the lower shaft which will have lower torque and a higher angular velocity.
The ywheel in the lower shaft helps to resist the change in the rotational speed of the lower shaft due
to its high moment of inertia. As a result, energy is stored in the ywheel and released to the generator
which converts the energy stored into electrical energy (Fatima & Mustafa, 2011).
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Figure 4. Block of diagram of RPG Working. Source: (Gowri et al., 2018).
4. CALCULATIONS
If we suspend a block of mass 1 kg vertically, we can nd out the spring constant (k) by simply measuring
the displacement (x).
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According to Hooke’s law,
Since the vertical force acting upon the block will simply be the weight,
Equating (i) & (ii), we get:
Where m is the recorded mass of the object, and x is the extension of the string.
Where
,
The force on each rack is given below with distance between the racks is 5 cm:
Since there are three racks employed:
Since r
1
, r
2
& r
3
are the radii of each of the pinions, r
1
= r
2
=r
3
= r = 12,7 cm