PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC VERSUS PIEZOELECTRIC FOOTSTEP ENERGY HARVESTER IN HIGH-FOOT-TRAFFIC AREAS
Keywords:
piezoelectric energy harvesting, electromagnetic energy harvesting, footstep energy harvesting, smart pavement, kinetic energy conversion, energy-harvesting floor tilesAbstract
Selecting an effective transduction mechanism for converting pedestrian kinetic energy into usable electricity is central to the design of self-powered sensing and lighting systems for high-traffic public infrastructure. This study presents a controlled, same-site comparison of electromagnetic (EM) and piezoelectric (PZT) footstep energy-harvesting floor tiles of identical footprint (300 mm × 300 mm × 60 mm, 8 mm vertical displacement) deployed side by side in a commercial pedestrian corridor with an average traffic density of approximately 3,500 pedestrians per hour. Electrical output was logged with a dual-channel data acquisition system under a nominal 70 kg pedestrian load. The PZT tile (a 4×4 PZT-5H ceramic array with a Schottky rectifier) produced a substantially higher open-circuit voltage (22.4 V) but low short-circuit current (2.8 mA), a peak power of 21.2 mW, an energy yield of 0.85 mWh per step, and a conversion efficiency of 9.8%. The EM tile (a rack-and-pinion-driven neodymium magnet/coil generator with a three-phase bridge rectifier) produced a lower open-circuit voltage (4.8 V) but a much higher short-circuit current (45.2 mA), a peak power of 68.5 mW, an energy yield of 2.42 mWh per step, and a conversion efficiency of 18.6%, reaching the 3.3 V operational threshold of a shared 5.5 V supercapacitor in 142 steps versus 385 steps for the PZT tile. Under 100,000 continuous impact cycles of accelerated stress testing, the PZT tile showed no measurable mechanical degradation, whereas the EM tile exhibited an 11.3% drop in power efficiency attributable to gear friction, dust intrusion, and spring wear. These findings, benchmarked against comparable values reported in the literature for piezoelectric (9–17%) and electromagnetic (17–26%) footstep harvesters, indicate that EM transduction is the stronger candidate for energy-storage, lighting, and device-charging applications, while PZT transduction remains preferable for low-power, low-maintenance, solid-state sensing nodes. The study addresses a documented gap in the literature — the scarcity of controlled, same-site, standalone PZT-versus-EM footstep comparisons — and its results support the growing case for hybrid PZT–EM harvesters in future smart-pavement deployments.
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