Synergistic performance of piezoelectric transducers and asphalt pavement

The deformation of piezoelectric transducer and asphalt pavement differs because of their different stiffness. As the piezoelectric transducer is embedded in asphalt pavement, the differential deformation may cause a non-uniform stress and degrade their performance. In this paper, the synergistic performance of piezoelectric transducer and asphalt pavement is studied through finite element analysis. Results show that the energy conversion efficiency of the transducers decreases with increasing burial depth and modulus of surface course. Under the vehicle loading, the piezoelectric transducer and asphalt pavement are easily separated by shear stress. For the asphalt pavement, the change in the stress of pavement structure and surface deflection is very small, which means that the differential deformation has no effect on fatigue cracking. Furthermore, an energy harvesting system composed of transducers array and asphalt plate is made and evaluated in a laboratory. Results show that the transducers within asphalt pavement have acceptable efficiency and high durability.