DefinePK

Abstract

Energy plays an important role in a country’s development. Traffic energy is one of the alternative energies being investigated worldwide. Over the years, investigations are being carried out to improve the functionality and efficiency of various types of devices used in traffic energy harvesting. There are still questions on the possible impact these traffic energy harvesters impose on vehicles and users. However, there is a limited study on the impact of traffic energy harvesters on vehicles and users. A detailed investigation of the possible impact of traffic energy harvesters is necessary to identify and mitigate the challenges which would help promote this promising alternative energy in the future. In this paper, a MATLAB simulation was carried out to investigate the impact of a rack-and-pinion based speed bump on vehicles and users in comparison with that of a conventional speed bump, in terms of its fuel consumption rate, impact on vehicle suspension, and ride comfort. The investigation revealed that power bumps do have negative influences on vehicles’ performance compared to that of conventional speed bumps.