Application of solar thermoelectric generation system for health monitoring system of civil infrastructures

Harvesting energy stands alone as one of the most promising techniques for approaching the global energy problem due to population growth, industrialization, and depletion of natural resources and environmental concerns. Energy harvesting technology in civil engineering is a new research territory that encompasses technologies that capture, accumulate and store the energy wasted at pavements. Their most enticing characteristic is that they already offer extended paved surfaces. This paper describes the Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) concept that was proposed and implemented to exploit the natural temperature difference between the air and an infrastructure to harvest the natural heat available. The object of this paper was to evaluate the application possibility of TEG as a future source of electrical power using civil infrastructure based on four case studies. The proposed system was composed of a TEG, conductive material, acrylic pipe, mortar specimen, and magnifying glass to verify the implementation of energy harvesting on infrastructure. In the TEG, the ambient thermal gradient between the two surfaces of the thermoelectric module was converted into electrical energy. The experimental results verified the feasibility of the proposed concept and hence of the thermoelectric harvesting of ambient thermal energy using solar heat in roadway.