Vibration-based energy harvesting in large-scale civil infrastructure: a comprehensive outlook of current technologies and future prospects

Vibration-based energy harvesting (VEH) is a highly sought-after technology that attracts tremendous attention in various engineering applications to meet energy demands. Researchers have published numerous papers discussing various VEH devices utilizing different scavenging methodologies. However, a detailed and comprehensive insight into how this technology could be used in diverse large-scale smart civil infrastructure is lacking. To meet this need, this paper comprehensively reviews VEH techniques in the last decade within civil infrastructure, a critical domain for generating clean, sustainable energy. The review evaluates the deployment of VEH across a diverse range of large-scale infrastructure that consistently encounters vibrations, such as bridges, buildings, wind turbines, railways, tunnels, roads, and pavements. The literature is systematically classified into thematic case studies, employing diverse VEH methodologies, including piezoelectric (PE), electromagnetic (EM), and triboelectric (TE) transduction approaches. This review focuses explicitly on single energy harvesting (EH), where only one energy source and one transduction mechanism are used and does not include hybrid EH mechanisms. This review distinguishes itself by examining a broad spectrum of civil infrastructure, thus highlighting its novelty and expanding beyond previous reviews that focused on a single infrastructure type. Moreover, the paper identifies gaps and limitations in the current landscape over the last 10 years and articulates future research directions, culminating in key conclusions that advance the field of VEH in smart civil engineering applications.