Competitive Advantages:
A renewable energy source, Applicable on a large-scale, Pavement performance is unaffected, Long service lifespan.
An energy harvesting roadway that includes a plurality of road segments and a power storage device electrically coupled to the plurality of road segments. Each of the plurality of road segments can include a surface asphalt layer, a first conductive asphalt layer located under the surface asphalt layer, a piezoelectric-based asphalt layer located between the first conductive layer and a second conductive layer located above a base asphalt layer. The piezoelectric-based asphalt layer can include a plurality of rigid piezoelectric elements and an insulating filler.USF inventors have designed a system which is capable of collecting dissipated vehicle kinetic energy on a large scale through the transformation of asphalt layers into a piezoelectric energy harvester. The system consists of two conductive asphalt layers and one piezoelectric layer. The two conductive asphalt layers are made of mixtures with conductive additives such as steel wool, graphite, and carbon black. The piezoelectric layer integrates piezoelectric materials with asphalt mixtures and other insulation materials. When the piezoelectric layer is vibrated, each piezoelectric cell is polarized because of the deviations of positive and negative charge centers. Then, the piezoelectric layer will charge the upper and lower conductive layers. Since the piezoelectric layer itself is insulated, electric charges will be stored in the upper and lower layers without leakage. This technology will provide a clean power source to supply transportation infrastructures. It is applicable in renewable energy and piezoelectric material industries.
