A Mechanical Vibration-induced Electric Energy Generation (MVEG) and Applications to Ride Quality of Vehicles and International Roughness Index (IRI)

Abstract

A mechanical vibration-induced, electric energy harvesting method is discussed with applications to vibration analyses of systems of vehicles, motorboats, trains, machines and bridges, etc.. The research has evolved from the analysis of International Roughness Index (IRI), which studies roughness of road-surface as longitudinal vibrational motions in a vehicle measured with a quarter-car simulation (QCS) or Global Positioning System (GPS) with sensors such as gyro sensor and magnetometer sensor. The electric energy-convertible vibrations with information of roughness of road surface are extracted by way of an mechanoelectric energy conversion, and an energy harvesting technology suitable for the system of vehicles is discussed. The mechanical vibration-induced electric current is also suitable for IRI information measurement as well as a measure for ride quality of vehicles.