Design and Verification of a Novel Energy Harvester for Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems

Abstract

With the development of intelligent tires, the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) has become a standard safety feature in cars. However, the existing TPMS has limited ability to monitor tire pressure in real time due to the passive power supply device’s low power output. This work presents a conceptual design for a novel energy harvester for TPMS (NEH-TPMS) based on a mechanical structure to recover energy. The motion of the mechanical structure is driven by the deformation of the tire in contact with the ground. The energy is recovered and released by a spiral spring to accomplish the functions of power generation and charging. Mathematical models are created based on the NEH-TPMS’s movements. The simulation results indicate that the NEH-TPMS’s power generation capacity is greater than that of existing energy harvesters and can satisfy the TPMS’s power supply requirements. This work uses finite element analysis and hierarchical analysis to optimize the shape of the NEH-TPMS. The parameters of the spiral spring are optimized using simulated annealing and genetic algorithms. NEH-TPMS has been enhanced to provide greater energy storage capacity. Finally, a prototype was built to verify the structure’s feasibility. The experimental results are consistent with the simulated results. This NEH-TPMS offers an efficient means of enhancing the power generation efficiency of the passive power supply device for TPMS.