Energy Harvesting from Car Suspension System Subjected to Random Excitation

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to calculate the harvested voltage and power from piezoelectric stack installed in the quarter and half car models. Both models are subjected to random excitation at different road classes. The mathematical models are built and developed by using MATLAB/Simulink. The obtained results show that harvested voltage and power are increased with the road roughness levels and car velocity. From very smooth to very rough road levels, the harvested power was increased by 434 mW for quarter car model and 537 mW for half car model.