INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH S. Gareh et al., Vol.9, No.3, September, 2019 Optimization of the Compression-Based Piezoelectric Traffic Model (CPTM) for Road Energy Harvesting Application Saleh Gareh* ‡ , B. C. Kok*, M. H. Yee**, Abdoulhdi. A. Borhana ***, S. K. Alswed* (salehgareh@gmail.com ,bckok@uthm.edu.my, mhyee@uthm.edu.my, amhmad@uniten.edu.my, sageralswed@gmail.com) *Department of Electrical Power Engineering, Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, UTHM 86400, Johor, Malaysia. **Faculty of Technical and Vocational Education, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. ***Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, 43000 Kajang, Selangor Darul Ehsan. ‡ Corresponding Author; Saleh Gareh, Department of Electrical Power Engineering, Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, UTHM 86400, Johor, Malaysia, salehgareh@gmail.com Received: 16.05.2019 Accepted:17.06.2019 Abstract- This paper employs the Two-Degree-of-Freedom (2DOF) electromechanical model to show the probability of the piezoelectric approach as an option for energy scavenging devices in roadway applications. The passing vehicles are the main energy source for harvesting device. A 2DOF electromechanical model as the piezoelectric harvesting unit is applied to explain the harvester performance in a single lane road. APC piezoelectric ceramic (APC 855) is selected as the optimum piezoelectric material due to its high piezoelectric constant values and high piezoelectric charge constant. Also, in the traffic model, we employ a Cellular Automata (CA) model. The vehicle dynamics model is used to transfer information from the traffic model to the piezoelectric model. Combining both the traffic model, i.e. the piezoelectric and the vehicle dynamics model, results in the compression-based piezoelectric traffic model (CPTM). In a single-lane traffic model with different arrival rate λ, a single circle- shaped Piezoelectric Cymbal Transducer (PCT) with thickness of 0.3 mm and diameter of 32 mm is applied, in which the produced power is 14.126 W and 29.746 W and 6.47 W. Based on these outcomes, if we lay multiple PCT arrays along the highway road, a large amount of power can be produced. Hence, a great potential is shown by the proposed electromechanical- traffic model for applications related to the macro-scale roadway electric power generation systems. Keywords Piezoelectric Energy Harvester; Mean Arrival Rate; 2DOF; Cellular Automata (CA); PCT. 1. Introduction Recently, several studies have been conducted to enhance the range of renewable energy from environmental resources such as extracting, converting, and storing power from motion, pressure, temperature or vibration derived from rain, waves, wind, light, tides, etc. The enhancements include developing of innovative materials and methods to gather and convert extremely small amounts of energy from the environment into electrical energy. This area attracting the researchers interest to develop more ways of using energy harvesting technologies to generate power [1-3]. For instance, Vibration based energy include ordinary household appliances, vehicles, machines, street traffic, acoustic vibrations and beside many others [4-10] become an interested field for researchers in order to generate small amounts of energy to be used for different applications. Vibration energy scavenging or harvesting is generally the process of harnessing power from ambient vibration sources. Different methods, such as electrostatic generation, electromagnetic induction and piezoelectric generation, can be employed for harvesting electrical energy through external vibrations [11]. Different tools and materials are used for generating electrical power (energy harvesting) from vehicles movements and pressures. Piezoelectricity is a common tool which can transform electrical energy into mechanical energy reverse. Pierre Curie (1859-1906) and Jacques Curie (1856-1941) discovered and developed the initial theory on piezoelectricity which is by compressing some crystals in certain directions, positive charges and negative charges could be generated on certain sections of the surface [12]. Since the first piezoelectricity theory is released, the need for alternative