Mechanical vibrations of railway vehicles were converted to electric power by means of a piezoelectric energy harvester, a rectification circuit, and a storage battery. The power harvested is used to supply one node of a sensor network for the structural monitoring and safety improvement on railway vehicles. The dynamic dimensioning of the piezoelectric generator is presented, for the mechanical and electric viewpoints; the resonance tuning is described and the experimental validation of the performances of the node is provided. The tests were conducted on a scaled railway bogie, which is able to simulate the real working conditions of a train. The efficiency and the duty cycle of the autonomous sensing platform are measured.
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Related contentNon-resonant electromagnetic energy harvester for car-key applications X Li, T Hehn, M Thewes et al. Abstract. This paper introduces the design and fabrication of energy harvesters for the power generation from human body motion. Two alternative strategies are compared: piezoelectric and magnetic inductive. The generated energy is used to supply body sensors including accelerometers and temperature sensors and RF module. Two prototypes of the magnetic based generator and of the piezoelectric generator are built and tested with shaker at resonance condition and by dedicated bench reproducing joints rotation during walking. The experimental results show that the magnetic prototype can generate 0.7mW from human body motion, while the piezo harvester generates 0.22 and 0.33μW respectively for flexion and extension at angular velocity lower than 1rad/s and 45° amplitude.
Nordic Walking is a modified version of the standard walking technique that involves the use of specific poles to increase the upper body engagement during the activity. In this article, the design and development of a monitoring system for Nordic Walking poles and its applications in workout sessions monitoring are discussed. The new data acquisition system was designed for outdoor activities, with a focus on proper technique and physiological parameters. The poles were equipped with an energy harvester system which allowed for long sessions due to the low energy consumption of the data acquisition system. Finally, a dedicated software was developed to store and analyze data obtained from different sessions.
In this paper, the dynamic experimental identification of an inductive energy harvester for the conversion of vibration energy into electric power is presented. Recent advances and requirements in structural monitoring and vehicle diagnostic allow defining Autonomous Internet of Things (AIoT) systems that combine wireless sensor nodes with energy harvester devices properly designed considering the specific duty cycle. The proposed generator was based on an asymmetrical magnetic suspension and was addressed to structural monitoring applications on vehicles. The design of the interfaces of the electric, magnetic, and structural coupled systems forming the harvester are described including dynamic modeling and simulation. Finally, the results of laboratory tests were compared with the harvester dynamic response calculated through numerical simulations, and a good correspondence was obtained.
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