System design to harvest thermal energy across pavement structure

Abstract

This paper describes the development of energy harvesting system that produce electricity from the thermal gradient across pavement structure. Monitoring the performance of infrastructure provides crucial information for their maintenance and retrofit activities. For distributed infrastructure, such as pavement, a localized strategy to produce electricity is desirable to power the monitoring sensors. Thermal gradients in pavement is a potential resource that can be used for infrastructure sensors. This paper describes the design of an energy harvest system that is installed on the surface of pavements. The system collects energy from the temperature difference between the pavement surface and the subgrade soil. Electronic circuit was designed to manage and store the energy. The concept was evaluated in simulated laboratory experiments. This energy harvesting strategy can potentially be used to power sensors to long term monitor infrastructure performance.