engleski

Wireless tire pressure monitoring by employing kinetic energy harvesting

Energy harvesting is the process of collecting low level ambient energy and converting it into electric power. Harvesting of kinetic energy of vibrations via piezoelectric bimorphs is advantageous as it is characterised by design simplicity, miniaturization and integration potential and high power densities. A metallic cantilever covered with piezoelectric material is thus placed in a vibrating environment. Charge is hence accumulated at the piezoelectric surface and used to power electric loads. A special interest in these devices is evident in the development of autonomous sensor nodes for ubiquitous wireless networks. On the other hand, tire pressure monitoring (TPM) has been proven to be extremely important when considering passenger safety. Correct tire pressures save lives and drastically improve tire lifetimes. Taking, however, into consideration the recent USA and EU acts, which impose TPMs in all new vehicles, a total of 10 batteries are to be disposed into the environment in a car lifetime. In this work an original solution of a wireless TPM system powered by a piezoelectric bimorph harvester is presented.

energy harvesting ; wireless networks ; tire pressure monitoring

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