Design and simulation of ball-based triboelectric nanogenerator for harvesting energy from rolling tires

The mechanical energy generated by tire rolling can be collected to power electronic sensors such as tire pressure monitoring. For now, how to harvest energy effectively from a spinning tire remains to be explored more. Here, a ball-based triboelectric nanogenerator (BB-TENG) that can capture the energy produced by tire rotation was proposed. First, we developed the kinematics model through ADAMS/View software, and the motion behavior of the ball was simulated. We studied the influence of the materials of the balls and the tire speed on the moving process. The results show that when the tire speed is 100 rad/min, the contact forces of Aluminum and PTFE balls with Kapton film are 0.11N and 0.08N, respectively, and the maximum contact force is 2.22 N and 0.67 N respectively. When the tire speed is 200 rad/min, the contact forces between Aluminum or PTFE balls and Kapton film are 0.08N and 0.1N respectively, and the maximum contact force is 1.77 N and 2.25 N respectively. Second, we used COMSOL Multiphysics software to simulate the electric potential distribution. The results indicate that a potential difference exists between the electrodes, and the electric potential difference between electrodes with an Aluminum ball was significantly higher than that with a PTFE ball. The results of kinematic simulation and electric potential distribution simulation lay the foundation for the realization of the function of the BB-TENG theoretically.