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HARVESTING ENERGY FROM VEHICLE WHEELS

G. Manla*, N.M. White, and J. Tudor
School of Electronics and Computer Science, Southampton University, Southampton, UK
ABSTRACT
This paper describes a new method to generate power
from a rotating vehicle wheel using a Thunder
piezoelectric generator [1]. The approach uses centripetal
force to generate an impact on the piezoelectric transducer.
The device was designed to be mounted on a vehicle rim.
A generator with a volume of 2 cm3 produced 4 mW of
electrical power at 800 rpm using a test wheel with 0.12 m
diameter. Analytical results showed that the same amount
of power can be produced by mounting the generator on a
vehicle wheel with a diameter of 13 inches and a linear
speed of 28.4 miles/h.

KEYWORDS
Impact energy harvesting, piezoelectric generator,
TPMS, rotational generator

INTRODUCTION
Over the last few years, the safety and reliability of
vehicles have significantly improved. Tyres perform
multiple tasks including carrying the vehicle load and
providing grip during braking and steering. Therefore,
their pressure must be regularly checked. Under-inflated
tyres increase the fuel consumption by increasing the
rolling resistance of the tyre, reduce the vehicles handling
stability and produce excessive heat that damages the tyre
and reduces its life-time [2]. Over-inflated tyres, on the
other hand, cause poor grip and reduce the vehicle stability
when braking and cornering. Therefore the need for a
system that warns drivers when the tyres are incorrectly
inflated, leads to a need for Tyre Pressure Monitoring
Systems (TPMS) [3]. At present, the sensors are powered
by a 3V lithium battery. Because of the finite battery life,
different approaches have been used to design selfpowered TPMS and reduce their power consumption.
TPMS available on the market can be fixed on the well
bed of the rim or can be mounted on the inside or the
outside end of the tyre valve.
For such applications, generators (piezoelectric,
electrostatic or electromagnetic transducers) can be
designed to convert the available vibration in the inner
tread area of the tyres into electrical energy [4, 5] using
resonant systems [6]. The generators are designed to
produce maximum power when their natural frequencies
match the vibration frequency at a specific linear speed.
The problem with this is that below this speed the stiffness
of the device is high. Increasing the speed, on the other
hand, creates a problem with the mechanical stability of

978-1-4244-4193-8/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

the generator, where its stiffness is insufficient to

withstand the force applied by the centripetal acceleration.
Due to the random nature the vibration in the vehicle tyre
[7] non-resonant system can provide an alternative
solution. Moreover, non-resonant systems produce more
power when the ratio between the displacement limit of
the generator mass and the input acceleration magnitude is
small [8], which is the case in this application. In resonant
system the work can be stored in the spring and then
released to the damper at a different part of the motion
cycle. The work in non-resonant system, on the other hand,
is only done on the damper, where the spring constant (k)
is zero.
This present work employs an experimental and
theoretical technique to analyse the effect of rotational
forces produced at a vehicle rim and the mechanism by
which a piezoelectric generator mounted at the edge of the
rim produces energy from rotational forces.

THE PROPOSED GENERATOR

A photograph of the constituent parts of a nonresonant piezoelectric transducer is shown in Figure 1. The
device transforms the forces due to rotation into useful
energy. The generator consists of a tube with a
piezoelectric beam mounted at each end. The tube allows a
small ball bearing to move freely, in response to forces
acting on it and hence, impact on the piezoelectric beam.
The total resultant force on each transducer is the sum of
the rotational force and the impact force from the ball
bearing. The rotational kinetic energy is converted into
electrical power by the generators. The deflection of the
piezoelectric transducer due to the impact of the mass
generates a current flowing into the resistive load which is
connected to the piezoelectric beam. Therefore, the motion
of the mass is damped and the power is dissipated into the
load.

Figure 1: A photograph of the constituent parts of the

piezoelectric generator.

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Transducers 2009, Denver, CO, USA, June 21-25, 2009

ANALYSIS OF THE GENERATOR UNDER

ROTATIONAL FORCES
This device relies upon the fact that, in addition to the
rotation force, the steel ball causes an impact force on the
piezoelectric beam when it reaches the end of the tube.
The impact force compresses the piezoelectric material
and generates a transient voltage pulse. The mechanical
compression of the piezoelectric material and voltage
generation serves as a conversion mechanism for
mechanical energy into electrical energy. During each
rotation of the wheel, the ball bearing hits each side of the
frame once. Therefore, the total power that the device can
produce each cycle is the sum power of both transducers.
The magnitude of the impact force of the ball bearing is
dependent on the way that the device is mounted. Figure 2
shows two different ways of mounting the generator on the
rotating wheel and highlights the direction of applied
forces for each situation.
The main acting forces in the first situation Figure 2(a)
are: tangential force, gravitational force and the component
of the centripetal force acting in the direction of the free
movement of the ball bearing. One limitation of this
method is that the tangential force is only available if the
angular velocity is changing. Another limitation is due to
the effect of the centrifugal force which can result in the
ball bearing sticking to one end of the frame when the
rotating speed reaches its critical value, as described in
Equation (1). This is the critical value for a constant
angular velocity. However, the critical value of the rotating
speed (f) changes by (dv/dt) if the angular velocity
changes.

f ( critical ) =

9.8
4 2 R sin[tan 1

L
]
2R

(2)

With this configuration, the generator is mounted in a

horizontal position during the rotation. Equation (3) gives
the magnitude of applied force on an object with an (m)
mass located in the middle of the frame:

Fca ( x ) = m4 2 2f R sin(t )

L
FcaL ( x ) = m4 2 2f [ R sin(t ) ]
2

(3)

Equation (3) shows that the magnitude of Fca(x) is

proportional to the distance between the centre point of the
frame and the centre of rotation. Moreover, this applied
force is proportional to the square of the rotating speed

(4)

Figure 2: Tow methods of mounting the generator on the

rotating wheel a) Rotating freely b) Horizontal position.

In order to understand the dynamic behavior of the

generator when it is kept in a horizontal position, the
equations of motion are solved numerically using a RungeKutta method.

Mx = 4M 2f R sin(t )

2
my + cy + ky = 4m f R sin(t )

(1)

R is the distance between the centre of rotation and the

point in the middle of the frame and L is the length of the
frame. A second method of mounting the generator in
Figure 2(b) shows that the main acting force on the
generator is due to the component of the centrifugal
acceleration acting on the free movement of the ball
bearing. This acceleration is available under constant and
non-constant angular velocity () and its magnitude is
given by Equation (2):

a ca ( x ) = 4 2f R sin(t )

(f). However, the two points located at either end of the

frame will be subjected to:

(5)

The first equation of the set of Equations (5) shows

that the acting force on the ball bearing mass (M) is the
inertial force due to the frame acceleration. The second
equation shows that the inertial force acting on the
piezoelectric beam with m mass equals to the sum of the
forces acting on the beam due to its acceleration, damping
force due to electrical and mechanical damping (c) and
elastic force due to the beam stiffness (k). x is the ball
bearing position and y is the piezoelectric beam position.
This set of differential equation is solved until x = + L / 2 .
At this point the equation of motion is given by equation
(6), where the values of its initial conditions are passed
from equation (5).

( M ) y + cy + ky = ( M )4 2f R sin(t ) (6)

( M ) is the sum of both the piezoelectric and the ball

bearing mass. When the piezoelectric beam and the ball

bearing are not on contact equation (5) will be used again.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

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Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the designed

rotating wheel. The rotating motion from a motor is

transferred through a 32 teeth pulley. The rotation is then
transferred to a 48 teeth pulley. The motor provides 0.3
Nm torque and maximum rotating speed of 2166 rpm.

the rotating wheel is 5 cm. The measured resonant

frequency of the piezoelectric beam is 1.3 k. All the
results in this section are obtained when the generator is
kept in a horizontal position while rotating. The simulated
dynamic behaviour of the ball bearing inside the tube is
show in Figure 5. The arrows indicate that multiple
impacts occur between the ball bearing and each side of
the tube. This result agreed with the experimental one as
shown in Figure 6.

Figure 3: Cross section of the designed rotating wheel

A rotating disk is then attached to the 48 teeth pulley

and they are fitted into a shaft through a bearing. This
allows the shaft to stay stationary while the disk rotates.
Two more pulleys are added to the system; one to the end
of the shaft in front of the rotating disk and the other one at
the edge of the disk. The other one is located at the edge of
the rotating wheel and used to hold the piezoelectric
generator through an L shaped aluminium base Figure (4).

Figure 5: Dynamic behaviour of the ball bearing inside the tube.

The peak in the response arises when the transducer is

directly compressed by the ball bearing followed by small
peaks caused by multiple impacts. The short peak occurs
when the ball bearing hits the other transducer on the other
side of the frame during the other half of a cycle. Figure 7
shows the average output power verses the load resistance.
It has been found that the maximum output power can be
achieved when the load resistance is at its optimum value.
Moreover, increasing the speed of the motor (rpm) resulted
in an increase in the output power due to the increase in
the impact force.
Figure 4: Experimental set-up for extracting energy from
rotation.

A synchronous toothed belt was used to connect these

two pulleys together. As the pulley in the middle of the
disk is stationary, the belt would force the other pulley to
stay in the same position while the disk is rotating.
Therefore, the mounted generator was kept horizontal at
the edge of a rotating wheel.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The mass of the ball bearing is 3.5 grams with 1 cm
diameter. The length of the tube is 1.5 cm. The radius of

Figure 6: The open circuit voltage at a rotational speed of 800

rpm.

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At 800 rpm the average output power generated by

each transducer during one cycle is 2 mW and thus 4 mW
can be produced by both transducers. A comparison
between the theoretical and the experimental output power
with a ball bearing is shown in Figure 8. Table 1 compares
the experimental output power between the system with
and without a ball bearing. The output power increases by
three orders of magnitude by introducing the ball bearing
to the system.

Experimental and theoretical results show that the

output power is proportional to the maximum
displacement of the mass squared. This can be explained
as a longer tube allows the ball bearing to accelerate more
and thus the velocity of the ball bearing will be higher
when it hits the end of the frame. Moreover, the output
power is proportional to the mass of the ball bearing.

CONCLUSION
A novel method has been used to convert the
centripetal acceleration available from rotation of a wheel
into electrical power. The design has the potential to
provide an alternative reliable, low-cost system for
powering TPMS. Experimental results show that the
output power increased by three orders of magnitude, due
to the ball bearing impact at 800 rpm compared to the
device without a ball. Moreover, increasing both the tube
length and the mass of the ball bearing will increase the
output power.

REFERENCES
[1] J. Mulling, T. Usher, B. Dessent, J. Palmer, P. Franzon,
E. Grant, A. Kingon, Load characterization of high
Figure 7: Output power versus load resistance at different
speeds.

The theoretical and experimental results show that the

average output power increases by increasing the rotating
speed.
Rotating speed

200 rpm

333 rpm

600 rpm

800 rpm

*P (W)

3.5x10-10

6.7x10-8

7x10-7

2.5x10-6

**P (W)

1.2x10-5

4x10-5

2.4x10-4

2x10-3

Table 2. Experimental output power at optimum resistance

without a ball bearing * with a ball bearing**.
3500

Average output power (W)

3000

Theoretical results
Experimental results

2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0

6
8
10
12
Rotating speed (rps)

14

16

18

displacement piezoelectric actuators with various end

conditions, J. Sens. Actuators A, vol. 94, pp. 19-24,

2001.
[2] L. Li, F. Wang, A watch in developments of
intelligent tire inspection and monitoring, IEEE
International Conference on Vehicular Electronics
and Safety, 2005, pp. 333-338.
[3] http://www.tyresave.co.uk/smartire.html. 2007.
[4] M. Keck, A new approach of a piezoelectric
vibration-based power generator to supply next
generation tire sensor systems, IEEE Sensors, 2007,
pp. 1299-1302.
[5] M. Lhndorf, T. Kvistery, E. Westby, E. Halvorsen,
Evaluation of energy harvesting concept for tyre
pressure monitoring systems , PowerMEMS, 2007,
pp. 331-334.
[6] S. P. Beeby, M. J. Tudor, N. M. White, Energy
harvesting vibration sources for microsystems
applications, J. Meas. Sci Technol., vol. 17, pp. 175194, 2006.
[7] J. Prisse, A study of radial vibrations of a rolling tyre
for tyre-road noise characterisation, PowerMEMS,
2007, pp. 1299-1302.
[8] P. D. Mitcheson, E. M. Yeatman, A. S. Holmes,
Architectures for vibration-driven micropower
generators, J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 13, pp.
429-440, 2004.

CONTACT

Figure 8: Output power verse speed at 0.01 m available

displacement for 0.0035 kg ball bearing.

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* G. Manla, tel:+442380593234; gm205r@ecs.soton.ac.uk