Modeling and Simulation of Vibrational Energy Harvesting from Passive Car Suspension Subjected to Random Excitations

Ambient vibration energy harvesting using piezoelectric sensors has attracted a lot of research interest for low power electronic systems, stand-alone wireless applications, and embedded systems (e.g., automobile applications). The energy harvested in this case depends not only on the vibration input level but also on the properties, the dimensions and characteristics of the piezoelectric harvester. This paper investigates the vibrations energy harvesting from passive car suspension using piezoelectric material. A theoretical quarter car model is developed and simulated using MATLAB Simscape multi-physics Toolbox. The study investigates the system's electromechanical behavior and evaluates the harvested electrical voltage and power when the suspension is subjected to different random excitations corresponding to the normalized-road classes.