PAVEMENT MODULE FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC ENERGY FROM THE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE AND VEHICLES"

Technical domain of the invention

The present invention is referred to a modular pavement to generate electric energy, with the movement of people and/or vehicles that moves through it, causing a small substantially vertical displacement of the surface that actuates a mechanical gear system, which is connected to the shaft of a generator, activating it to run at a speed that allows it to generate electric energy.

Summary of the invention

It is one of the goals of the present invention to create a pavement with an electromechanical system inside it, which is actuated with the passage of people or vehicles through its surface, causing on this a small displacement (up-down-up) . This movement actuates an electromechanical system that generates electric energy with electromagnetic or permanent magnet generators.

The present invention comprises a pavement module (1) for generating electric energy, with the movement of people and/or vehicles that move over it, causing a small substantially vertical displacement of the topmost surface (10) that actuates a mechanical gear system (2, 3, 4, 5), which is connected to the shaft of a generator (6), activating it to run at a speed that allows it to efficiently generate electric energy. Thus the surface (10) maintains a substantially horizontal level, providing comfort and safety for people and vehicles, and also enabling modularity of the solution, and by also being multidirectional.

The movement of people and/or vehicles on the pavement surface (10) actuates an arm (2) in an assembly (12, 13, 15) that actuates the gear system, converting the linear motion of the pavement surface on a rotational movement of the gear system (3) .

The pavement (1) also comprises on its base (9) resilient support elements (11, 14) of the surface (10), and means (7, 8) for ensuring a vertical motion of the surface (10) maintaining it substantially horizontal.

The present invention is useful to allow the generation of electric energy by a renewable and alternative way, where any fuel is needed to this, being its main advantage the generation of electric energy without use the combustion of fossil fuels, allowing to reduce the CO ₂ emissions through the environment .

As the present invention can be actuated by both the people and vehicles motion through the pavement, other advantage it is its great applicability, because the same system can be applied in a great number of places: in the pavement of indoor spaces as shopping malls, sport places, gyms, public transport stations, night clubs, among others where there is a great affluence of people; in the pavement of outdoor spaces as crosswalks, sidewalks, people bridges or leisure areas; beside these places where exists a great affluence of people, the system can also be applied in places as roads, highways, tolls, speed bumps, crosswalks, car parking areas, where there exists vehicles affluence and in some cases both people and vehicles affluence on the same space.

The present invention describes a pavement module (1) for generating electric energy from the movement of people and vehicles comprising:

- a base (9) and a surface (10) movable therefrom, said surface (10) being suitable to be actuated by the movement of people, or vehicles, or people and vehicles;

- a rotational electric generator (6) comprising a shaft;

- a motion conversion mechanism (2, 3) for converting the reciprocating motion of the surface (10) into a circular motion to a drive shaft;

- a freewheeling clutch (4) configured to disengage the drive shaft from the driven shaft of the generator (6), when the drive shaft rotates in reverse or more slowly than the driven shaft, and configured to engage otherwise;

- resilient means (14) able to return the surface (10) to its initial position after the actuation by people and/or vehicles ;

- an inertial wheel (5) coupled to the generator (6) shaft;

- a linear displacement mechanism (7) suitable to ensure that the surface (10) only travels in a substantially vertical way .

A preferred embodiment further comprises a gear system (3) configured to increase the rotation speed driven to the generator .

In a preferred embodiment said motion conversion mechanism comprises a lever arm (2) with a rack connected to a pinion (3) . In a preferred embodiment said lever arm (2) is configured to increase the travel of the reciprocating motion from the surface (10) to said rack.

In a preferred embodiment the pavement module (1) further comprises another one, or more, sets of: a rotational electric generator (16, 18, 20); a motion conversion mechanism (17, 19, 21) for converting the reciprocating motion of the surface (10) into a circular motion to a drive shaft; a freewheeling clutch configured to disengage the drive shaft from the driven shaft of the generator, when the drive shaft rotates in reverse or more slowly than the driven shaft, and configured to engage otherwise; an inertial wheel coupled to the generator (16) shaft.

The present invention also describes a pavement module (22, 29, 33), for transmitting mechanical energy from the movement of people and vehicles to previously said pavement module (1) for generating electric energy, comprising:

- a base (9) and a surface (10) movable therefrom, said surface (10) being suitable to be actuated by the movement of people, or vehicles, or people and vehicles;

- a motion conversion mechanism (23, 24) for converting the reciprocating motion of the surface (10) into a circular motion to a drive shaft;

- a freewheeling clutch configured to disengage the drive shaft from the driven output shaft, when the drive shaft rotates in reverse or more slowly than the driven output shaft, and configured to engage otherwise;

- resilient means (14) able to return the surface (10) to its initial position after the actuation by people and/or vehicles ; - a linear displacement mechanism (7) suitable to ensure that the surface (10) only travels in a substantially vertical way;

- a mechanical connection (25, 26, 27, 28, 32) between the driven output shaft of this module (22, 29, 33) to the generator (6) shaft of the pavement module (1) for generating electric energy.

In a preferred embodiment said mechanical connection between the driven output and the generator (6) shaft comprises a shaft (25) .

In a preferred embodiment said mechanical connection between the driven output and the generator (6) shaft comprises a belt and pulley assembly (26, 27, 28) .

The present invention also describes a pavement system comprising one or more pavement modules according to the previous claims.

State of the art

Nowadays, the main sources to generate electric energy are thermal centrals (using coal, gas or diesel) and nuclear centrals, being progressively implemented some equipments to generate electric energy via renewable sources in a bigger scale, with special emphasis to hydroelectric centrals and great application using wind energy, both Onshore and Offshore. Solar energy applications are also being implemented, but the small efficiency of this technology makes that this is not a viable and versatile solution yet. All the sources to generate electric energy previously referred have its applications mainly based outside cities and urban areas, and need the use of fossil fuels, nuclear, or natural sources (water, wind, sun) to generate electric energy. However, this energy needs to be transported to the places where it is consumed, with special evidence to the urban and industrial centers, existing losses of energy on the transport networks, which makes that there is necessary to produce more energy that the really needed energy.

In order to invert this situation, recently it was started the micro generation concept, that consists on the electric energy generation on people homes and factories, using mainly solar and wind systems. However, the electricity generation with these systems depends on the availability of the resources (sun and wind) and on climacteric effects.

On urban centers exists two aspects that are common at a global level: the affluence of people and the affluence of vehicles. Attending to this situation, it is obvious that both share the same common space, that is, the pavement, and every time a person or a vehicle moves, they both release kinetic energy to the pavement, which is not being captures and used for anything.

That is how comes the idea of use these common space, the pavement, to generate electric energy on the places where it will also be consumed, also reducing the energy grid losses associated to the transport process and also reducing the dependency on the use of fossil fuels to generate electric energy and the negative effects that these have on the environment. With this system, there is a sustainable alternative to the electric energy generation. Some searches reveal the existence of other systems and applications based on the energy harvesting though the pavement to generate electric energy, as are the case of some applications with piezoelectric systems, also patented (as the patent WO2009153106A1 ) , where there are used piezoelectric cells to generate electric energy with the movement of people and also with the movement of vehicles.

However, these cells have a small efficiency in electric energy generation, which makes that there is necessary to implement a great amount of cells to generate a considerable quantity of energy, which is not the purpose of the present invention, considering that to make the electric energy through the pavement sustainable and viable, the amount of energy by square meter has to be considerable. The present invention solves this limitation, because it can generate more energy per square meter, comparing with the previously referred systems.

Other systems are being developed mainly to capture the movement of vehicles in order to generate electric energy, where this movement is used to actuate a mechanical system, or directly an electrical system (as for example on patents WO2010035225A2, CN201339553Y, CN201250766Y, CN201206537Y and CN201183941Y) . However, beside the quantity of generated energy is considerable, these applications are limited to the necessity of a great load (vehicles weight) to actuate the system, which is not the purpose of the present invention. These patents show evolution on the state of the art associated to the vehicles energy harvesting to generate electric energy, but these are projected to be implemented using a great area of the pavement, which makes that there is necessary to realize great adaptations on the pavement and great loads to generate electric energy. CN201339553 describes a floor unit that consists of a drive shaft, gear box and transmission, wherein movement of a top articulated plate engages a lever mechanism engaged with a vertical rack, which meshes with a flywheel mechanism connected to a generator. This document however requires the plate to be higher than the road surface, at the side opposite to its articulation. The preamble of claim 1 is set in reference to this disclosure.

General description of the invention

The present invention is different from the previous inventions because it does not need a great space to be implemented (it can also be applied above the actual pavement of the place), or great loads to be actuated. The techniques developed on the present invention allows to generate the same amount of energy, or even higher, comparing to the previously patents techniques, due to the possibility of connecting several modules, hereby referred interchangeably as blocks, in different ways, maximizing the total energy produced by the system.

The present invention providesdescribes how to use the people and/or vehicles to cause a linear motion of the pavement surface (a small substantially vertical displacement that does not cause discomfort or extra effort on people walk, or bump effects on vehicles motion) , which actuates a mechanical system that converts this linear motion on a rotational motion, that actuates a generator shaft (this generator can be AC or DC, electromagnetic or permanent magnets) and generate electric energy. The developed electromechanical system (which will be placed inside the pavement) needs a load to be actuated, which allows to generate electric energy. The bigger the load is, the higher it will be the speed of the mechanical system and, consecutively, the higher the amount of generated electric energy. With this, it was developed an electromechanical system that generates electric energy through the pavement, which can be actuated by people and/or vehicles motion.

The present invention comprises on a pavement with a system to produce electric energy inside, being constituted by a block with a fixed part and a mobile part. The fixed part is composed by the base that is fixed to the floor (pavement) on the application place and, on top of it, there will be applied the components of this new pavement. The mobile part consists on the upper surface of the new pavement, becoming the area of interface between the system and people or vehicles, that is, the floor on which they will be walk/move.

When a load is applied on the surface (pavement), it moves on the vertical axis and the linear motion of the surface activates an arm at one point. When the load is applied at a point near one end of the arm (rotation zone) , this load will cause a small displacement at this point that is increased and causes a greater movement of the arm on the end farthest from the point of application. This end is connected to a gear system, thus enabling to convert linear motion of the surface into a rotational movement.

By its turn, the gear set (gear box) is connected to the shaft of the generator, which will run at such a speed that allows the system to generate electricity. As it will easily be noticed, any suitable mechanism able to convert reciprocating motion into circular motion can be used, the general mechanism being of the operation of a crank.

The mechanism also includes a system of "free wheel" (or clutch) so that the arm actuates the generator shaft only when it descends and prevents reverse movement of the shaft when it rises .

As it will easily be noticed, any suitable mechanism able to operate as a freewheel clutch or overrunning clutch, disengaging transmission from the driveshaft to the driven shaft, when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft, can be used, in this case the general mechanism being also possible in linear motions, namely by a ratchet.

To extend the continuity of the movement, the generator shaft is also coupled to an inertia wheel, or flywheel, which allows the shaft of the generator does not stop rotating between passages of people and / or vehicles, and the time until it stops is extended, maximizing power output.

The generator can preferably be of two types: electromagnetic or direct current .

For each block can be used one, two, three, four or more generators, depending on the type of application that the floor is intended. In this invention may also exist blocks without generation system, where inside is only the system of the arm mechanically connected to a "main block" that contains one or more generators.

Description of the drawings The following figures provide preferred embodiments for illustrating the description and should not be seen as limiting the scope of invention.

Fig. 1: Schematic representation of the pavement with one generator .

In which (1) represents the pavement (in block shape), (6) represents a generator (can be electromagnetic or direct current, with or without brushes), (2) represents an arm that is fixed at one end (axis of rotation) , through a shaft, to a support (6), and when a load is applied on the pavement surface, this is transmitted to the arm by means of a protrusion (12), which will have a certain displacement, while the other end of the lever will act a gear (3) which, in turn, is connected to a gearbox with a freewheel system (4), which actuates the generator shaft (6) . The shaft also has engaged an inertia wheel (5) which prolongs the generator shaft rotation .

About the pavement structure (1), this consists on a base (9), vertical support bars on the corners (11), which includes a system of linear motion components (7), connected by horizontal bars (8) and on which integrates a flat surface (10), which will become the new pavement surface, upon which people and vehicles moves (contact surface) .

For the surface (10) back to its original position, after the passage of a person or a vehicle, it is used a compression spring (14) in each corner (11). As for the arm (2), to return to its initial position after operating the gear (3) it is also used a spring (13) to put it in its starting position after each load. The arm is supported by an abutment (15) .

Fig. 2: Schematic representation of the pavement with two generators . In which (1) represents the pavement (in block shape), (6) represents a generator and (2) an arm (same as figure 1), (16) represents a second generator (similar to the generator (6)) and (17) the arm that actuates the mechanical system that will rotate the shaft of the generator (16) . The other components that compose this block configuration are the same as listed for Figure 1.

Fig. 3: Schematic representation of the pavement with four generators .

In which (1) represents the pavement (in block shape), (6) represents a generator, whose shaft is driven by a mechanical system equal to that of Figure 1, which is performed by the arm (2). (16), (18) and (20) represent three generators identical to generator (6), which are actuated by arms (17), (19) and (21), respectively. The other components that compose this block configuration are the same as listed for Figure 1. To apply this block configuration, it may be decreased the size (consecutively the power) of the generators, or increased the size of the block that forms the pavement.

Fig. 4: Schematic representation of a pavement with four blocks, where one has a generator and three have only mechanical system and connection to the block with generator. In which (1) represents the block with a generator (6), driven by a mechanical lever (2), gears (3), freewheel and inertia wheel. (25) and (32) represent shafts, which are driven by gears in an identical manner to the shaft of the generator, that is, through the arm of each block. In the case of the block (22), lever (23) will drive the gear system (24), which drives the shaft (25), which transmits the movement to the shaft of the generator (6) . (27) represents a belt that connects the shafts (25) and (32) through pulleys (26) and (28) . The block (29) has a lever (30) which drives the gear system (31), which drives the shaft (32). The block (33) has a lever (34) that drives the gear system (35), which drives the shaft (32) .

Detailed description of the invention

The present invention relates to a sustainable pavement (1) to generate electric energy from the oscillation of the surface (10), which drives an electromechanical system fixed at its base (9), mentioned in Figure 1.

The fixed part (9) is the lower base, which is fixed to the pavement of the application place, and that have fixed in its surface the mechanical and electrical components of the system for generating electricity.

The mobile part (10) is the top of this new pavement, becoming the floor surface where people and / or vehicles will be in contact, and have a linear motion (on the vertical axis) when a load is exerted on it. To ensure linear motion of the surface, there are used mechanical components of linear displacement (7), mentioned in Figure 1, which keeps the surface in a substantially horizontal position, regardless the point of load application on this. Thus, regardless of where the person or vehicle passes on the surface of the block, the load is substantially applied equally to the mechanical system, allowing greater system durability, because the movement will be homogeneous, with no distributions of different loads on the mechanical system connecting the shaft of the generator, depending on the point of implementation.

As it will be easily noticed, any suitable mechanism for providing a substantially parallel motion can be used, namely a mechanical linkage as a pantograph, a slide/slider or combinations thereof.

The linear motion of the surface (10), as in figure 1, actuates an arm (2) on the point (12), being the arm inside the pavement (block), fixed at one end (6) and in contact with a gear (3) the other end. When a load is applied on the point (12), this causes a small displacement at that point, which is converted to a larger displacement in the contact area with the gear lever (3), maximizing the rotational movement thereof .

Also, the gear (3) is connected to a gearbox (4), existing a gear ratio (multiplication) between them, which causes the rotations in gear (3) are extended to a larger number of revolutions out of the gearbox, which is connected to the shaft of the generator (6), as illustrated in Figure 1. With this it is possible to convert a small linear motion in a rotational motion which, depending on the speed with which the surface moves down, it can give sufficiently high speeds to the generator shaft.

The gearbox (4) also has a freewheel system in its connection with the generator shaft, which means that when the lever arm (2) is pushed down the shaft is driven clockwise, and when it returns to up by the action of a spring (13), the shaft is not actuated in the opposite direction, which enables the movement does not have an action that would otherwise shorten the rotation of the generator shaft and hence the amount of energy generated. Thus, it is possible that the shaft continues in rotation, even after the load is no longer applied to the pavement . For the moving surface (10) returns to its initial position, there are used springs (14), preferably distributed across the four corners of the block.

To extend the continuity of movement, it is used an inertia wheel (5) attached to the generator shaft.

As for the generator (6), this can preferably be of two types: electromagnetic (generation of AC) or direct current generator. For applications with electromagnetic generator, an electronic circuit is used to convert alternating current to direct current. In both cases the application of generating DC or AC, will use an electronic circuit to control and regulate the charging of energy storage systems (super-capacitors and batteries). Any rotational electric generator will usually be adequate .

The blocks that compose the pavement may have mechanical connections between them (shafts and belts) to transmit the motion generated in a block for the shaft of the generator of another block, for example, in Figure 4, where blocks are used without a generator.

Examples of application

From figure 1 (pavement only with one generator) can be noted the preferred configuration of the pavement in the form of a block, where is only used one mechanical system (2), (3), (4), (5) and one generator (6), which block may be actuated both by a person or a vehicle.

In this configuration, whenever a person or a vehicle moves over the surface (10), as this is supported on the horizontal bars (8), which are fixed to the mechanical components of linear displacement (7), the surface will have a linear motion on the vertical axis, down, pressing the lever (2) in the point (12) . This lever will actuate the gear (3) which, in turn, will actuate a system of gears (4), which rotates the generator shaft with a certain speed, generating electricity.

The generated energy is directly related to the speed of rotation of the shaft which, in turn, is associated to the linear speed of the surface down movement. Thus, this configuration of a pavement with only one generator is the better to harvest the kinetic energy associated to the movement of people, as it has the lowest load need to be actuated .

From figure 2 (block with two generators) may be observed a configuration where two generators (6) and (16) are used in one block. The operation of the system is exactly the same as in the case of one generator (Figure 1), but applied to situations where the loads are higher, for example, in applications dedicated exclusively to vehicles (roads, speed bumps, tolls, car parking areas, etc.) . Excess weight (comparing with people) could be better used to generate even more energy, using for this, the double installed power.

From figure 3 (pavement with four generators) can be observed a configuration where four generators (6), (16), (18) and (20) are used in the same block. The operation of each block is identical to the case of Figure 1, however, applications where the load is high, the excess load can be used for driving four generators .

From figure 4 (pavement consists on a block with one generator and three blocks without generator) can be observed a setting where not all blocks have the generator. This type of application can be used where several blocks are applied in the same space and there is a continuous movement on these, for example, on a crosswalk. By placing mechanical connections between the blocks can take advantage of the continuous movement on those that are arranged in a sequence, maximizing the time of rotation on the shaft of the generator (6) associated with that sequence and thus able to generate energy for a longer time.

The block (1), where the generator is placed, is identical to the block in Figure 1, having a lever (2) driving a mechanical system of gears (3) which, in turn, rotates the shaft of the generator (6) . The blocks that have no generator, are also identical to that of Figure 1, and the mechanical system (with the components (3), (4) and (5)) operated by a lever (2), but being connected to the mechanical system a shaft (25) and (32), which transmits the movement generated by the block to the shaft of the generator (6) .

Shafts (25) and (37) are connected mechanically by a belt (27) and pulleys (26) and (28), which allows the transmission of the shaft (32) movement to the shaft (25) and therefore, for the shaft of the generator (6) . With such connections, it can be captured the movement of people or vehicles simultaneously on several blocks to power the generator with a longer rotation time. Also, this configuration reduces the installation cost, due to the reduction in the number of generators .

In this configuration, if a load is exerted on the block (22), lever (23) will drive the gear system (24), which drives the shaft (25), which in turn drives the generator shaft (6), thereby generating electricity. If a load is exerted on the block (29), lever (30) will drive the gear system (31), which drives the shaft (32), which through the belt (27) transmits the movement to the shaft (25), which drives the generator shaft (6) . If the block (33) is actuated, lever (34) drives the gear system (35), which drives the shaft (32), which through the belt (27) transmits the movement to the shaft (25), which transmits the movement to the shaft of the generator ( 6 ) .

As it will easily be noticed, any suitable mechanism able to transport either reciprocating motion or circular motion between blocks can be used, the general mechanism being of the operation of a shaft, rod or belt, in particular by the belts and pulleys described.

The invention is of course not in any way restricted to the embodiments described and a person with ordinary skill in the art will foresee many possibilities to modifications thereof without departing from the basic idea of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

The following claims set out particular embodiments of the invention .