0000000000540794
AUTHOR
D Ticali
Electromechanical characterization of a bimorph piezo for Energy Harvesting applications in road infrastructures
Piezoelectric materials can be used as a means of transforming ambient vibrations into electrical energy that can be stored and used to power other devices. With the recent surge of micro scale devices, piezoelectric power generation can provide a convenient alternative to traditional power sources used to operate certain types of sensors/actuators, telemetry, and MEMS devices. However, the energy produced by these materials is, in many cases, far too small to directly power an electrical device. In the present study, piezoelectric devices will be investigated and experimentally tested to determine each of their abilities to transform ambient vibration into electrical energy. Tested piezoel…
Flower roundabouts: estimation of capacity and level of service
The research work on road junction geometry, carried out in European research centres, has recently allowed to design new road intersection types which are of undoubted interest, especially in terms of traffic functionality and safety. Among the most interesting solutions there are such schemes as spiral, turbo and flower roundabouts, which are similar to traditional roundabouts. Although these solutions provide a traffic travels counterclockwise around a central island and in which entering traffic must yield to circulating traffic, the newly designed schemes generally offer modes of traffic flow regulations which highly differ from those used in conventional roundabouts. Of considerable i…
Turbo roundabouts:geometric design parameters and performance analysis
A turbo roundabout is a particular type of roundabout where entering and circulating lanes are bounded by traffic signs and by non-mountable curbs. The physical separation between lanes, both at entries and on the ring, helps to prevent side collisions crossing the roundabout. The main advantages of turbo roundabouts are: i) reduction in the number of potential conflict points; ii) lower speed of vehicles passing through the intersection; iii) safety conditions at the intersection due to lower risk of side-by-side accidents. Also, in some cases the capacities of turbo roundabouts are higher than the capacities of conventional roundabouts. This paper presents an estimation of capacity, delay…