The range of batteries for many electric vehicles is limited, which means that these transportation methods can only be used for short trips. However, in extended-range electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids, manufacturers include an internal combustion engine that uses conventional fuels to recharge the batteries in motion and thus extend their range.1 Although practical, this approach challenges the Purpose of having an electrical system Driveline: reducing the environmental impact through the use of renewable energy sources. The need remains a cleaner energy generation technique that allows for maximum reach with minimal environmental consequences.
Piezoelectric materials generate electrical energy when subjected to mechanical stress. Power generation devices based on these materials have emerged in recent years in the context of vibration energy collection.2 However, their production has only been sufficient to power sensors and other small, low-power devices. Energy. Benders made of PZT (lead zirconate titanate, the most common piezoelectric ceramic material) attached to a tire3 have also been used, but only to supply power to intermittently operated tire pressure sensors. To obtain a high performance performance of this process, it is imperative to cover most of the inner surface of a tire as possible with PZT folding machines. In this way, and because these elements produce energy through the deformation at the road-pneumatic interface known as patch contact, a reliable and continuous source of energy for the moving vehicle is guaranteed.
A 4x40 set of low-cost, highly flexible PZT elements were attached to most of the inner surface of a tire using a flexible adhesive (see Figure 1). Since the storage capacitor is polarized, the voltage response of These elements, which is an AC (alternating current) waveform, must be converted into a DC (direct current) signal by a rectifier before it can be cached in the capacitor. Each row of bending machines, which traverses the width of the tire, is treated as a generator and rectified separately with all PZT lines connected in parallel. At any given time, only two or three rows, depending on the length of the contact patch, generate energy. Since the rectifiers provide very high resistance in the reverse mode (opposite the direction of the allowed current flow), the remaining PZT folds act as a disconnection in the path of the electric current, ie as an open circuit.