Govan-Partick Pedestrian Bridge: Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting from Footfall-Induced Vibrations

The Govan-Partick pedestrian bridge is an under-construction footbridge that aims to reconnect the less developed Govan region of Glasgow to the neighboring Partick region, which contains cultural, economic, and educational landmarks, such as the University of Glasgow. This chapter aims to simulate the total energy that can be harvested via footfall-induced vibrations by people and cycles travelling on the bridge and display the data to the public to encourage active travel. This is done in accordance with the University’s GALLANT (Glasgow as a Living Lab Accelerating Novel Transformation) Project, which aims to increase active travel, such as walking and cycling, within Glasgow and aim for low carbon energy solutions. Piezoelectric energy harvesting is a growing field that utilizes mechanical vibrations and stresses to derive electric energy. Using piezo patches installed on cantilever beams, the vibrations induced from footfall are harvested to generate an electric potential, which can then be stored or used to charge sensors used to monitor the activity on the bridge. The data will be displayed in real time to promote active travelling. By modelling the bridge in a Finite Element Analysis Software, this work aims to derive the modal measurements of the bridge and import them into a simulation program to obtain the potential energy that can be generated under different parametric conditions. This information is core to correctly dimension the sensor network and the visualization device. Preliminary energy estimations will be driven by data obtained from observation of the footfall on already existing footbridges across the river Clyde.