Energy Harvesting From Bicycle Vibrations

The problem of frequency tuning a cantilever piezoharvester to the typical vibrations of a bicycle is here investigated. This is a key to optimize the energy harvesting performance. Road tests with a bicycle on a typical city track are first carried out to measure the power spectral density of bike vibrations. Both analytical and experimental methods are used to estimate the average electric power that can be harvested by a piezoharvester with a solid tip mass. This solution is compared with a tuning strategy based on a liquid tip mass by using a novel analytical method for simulating frequency response.