POWER GENERATION FROM SPEED BREAKERS

By Shyam Kumar G

OVERVIEW
Introduction Scope ,merit and use Construction details. Basic principle. Challenges faced. Future scopes.

Introduction:
Is anyone happy with current situation of electricity in India??? So, this is our small step to try to improve this situation by our project. First of all what does electricity mean to us??? Electricity- secondary source of energy i.e. converted from other sources. We need it for every small thing, still notice its importance only during load shedding.

Scope, Merits and Uses

Low Budget electricity production Less floor area No obstruction to traffic Easy maintenance Suitable at parking of multiplexes, malls, toll booths, signals, etc. Uses: Charging batteries and using them to light up the streets, etc.

Construction details:
Initial experiments- DC motor as Generator(electric dynamo). Spur gears Flywheel Shaft. Springs bearings

Electric dynamo

BASIC PRINCIPLE:
Simple energy conversion from Mechanical to Electrical. To generate electricity using the vehicle weight (potential energy) as input Possible using 3 different mechanisms: I. Crank-shaft mechanism II. Roller mechanism III. Rack- Pinion mechanism

Crank shaft machanism

Crank shaft machanism

Crank-shafts are required to be mounted on bearings which creates balancing problem leading to mechanical vibrations which in turn damage the bearings. Secondly as bearings are of sliding type, any occurrence of variable load( which is bit obvious in case of vehicles!!) leads to balancing problem.

Roller machanism

Side view

Roller mechanism has some different disadvantages.

Maintenance will be very difficult Might cause collision.

Rack and pinion machanism

Rack-Pinion assembly gives good mounting convenience Maximum gear losses 3 to 5% Efficiency 95%

Challenges we faced!!
Selecting suitable generator. Selection of springs. Achieving proper balance of speed and torque.

What we achieved???
Constructed our own generator by applying the basic principle. Although we got less electrical output, we have successfully explained our idea of generating electricity from speed breaker.

Future Scope:
Such speed breakers can be designed for heavy vehicles, thus increasing input torque and ultimately output of generator. More suitable and compact mechanisms to enhance efficiency.