The Quest for Renewable Energy—Effects of Different Asphalt Mixes and Laboratory Loading on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters

In furtherance of the quest for green renewable and sustainable energy, an effort was made in this laboratory study to generate harvest electric power from hot-mix asphalt (HMA); a viscoelastic material that is widely used road construction. The underlying hypothesis mechanical vibrations strain energy induced by vehicle loading on (pavement) can be harnessed converted into usable embedding piezoelectric sensors within HMA layers pavement structure. To investigate effects mix type generated four commonly Texas types, namely Type B (coarse-graded), C (dense-graded), D (dense-to-fine graded), F (fine-graded), with up seven different mix-design volumetric characteristics were comparatively evaluated laboratory. study, loading, load magnitude frequency, investigated simulating traffic through comparative testing Hamburg wheel-tracking tester (HWTT) universal machine (UTM), respectively, at temperature conditions. A prototype highway sensing conversion (HiSEC) module utilized converting applied stress harvestable during HWTT UTM testing, respectively. current, voltage, measured quantified using multipurpose meter. Overall, demonstrated there promising potential when subjected transient under However, further refinement HiSEC still warranted optimize generation harvesting capacity, both terms efficiency output.