Feasibility study on application of piezoelectricity to convert vibrations of Korea Train eXpress

In this study, we have investigated the feasibility of applying piezoelectricity to convert the mechanical vibrations of an operating commercial high-speed Korean train to useful electricity. We recorded and analyzed the vibrations of Korea Train eXpress (KTX). We experimented with different cantilever beam thicknesses (0.25, 0.6, and 1.0 mm) and different piezoelectric material dimensions (10.0 × 10.0 × 0.5 mm3, 20.0 × 10.0 × 0.5 mm3, and 30.0 × 10.0 × 0.5 mm3) on real data from recorded random frequencies and train vibration amplitudes. The addition of tip masses on the cantilever beam decreased the natural resonance frequency range when the vibrations were constant but not when they were random. The optimal condition was experimentally found, to involve decreasing the beam thickness and increasing the beam area rather than merely increasing the tip mass. The most effective method to improve the operational sensitivity was to decrease the resonance frequency by adding tip masses, decreasing beam thicknesses, and increasing beam areas.