Energy Harvesting for Sensors of Structural Integrity in Wind Power Stations

Abstract

Abstract:The structural integrity of the rotors of wind power stations can be monitored by a variety of sensors. However, the power supply of the employed sensors should not be connected by cable because lightning strikes are provoked that way. Therefore, energy harvesting systems are an interesting alternative. Three concepts for electrical power generation by harvesting the energy from the movements inside of rotor blades of wind power stations are described and compared to each other. Inside of such rotor blades, large vibration amplitudes of up to 15 cm are available but only at a frequency of a few Hertz. The available space is on the order of 20 × 20 × 40 cm 3 . A beam equipped with piezos and repelling magnets turned out being the most promising solution.

Semi-Analytical Modeling and Analysis of Halbach Array

“…Nevertheless, the cost of an electric machine could be increased when HA is used due to the manufacturing difficulties of HA arising from factors such as the bonding difficulties of PMs, which are magnetized in different directions, etc. However, as there are many merits of HA, it is widely used for diverse kinds of electric machines, such as, motor [9][10][11][12][13][14][15], maglev [16,17], eddy current brake [18][19][20][21][22], actuator [23,24], magnetic bearing [25][26][27], energy harvester [28][29][30][31], etc.…”