• Energy Research

This paper deals with a development and lab testing of energy harvesting technology for autonomous sensing in railway applications. Moving trains are subjected to high levels of vibrations and rail deformations that could be converted via energy harvesting into useful electricity. Modern maintenance solutions of a rail trackside typically consist of a large number of integrated sensing systems, which greatly benefit from autonomous source of energy. Although the amount of energy provided by conventional energy harvesting devices is usually only around several milliwatts, it is sufficient as a source of electrical power for low power sensing devices. The main aim of this paper is to design and test a kinetic electromagnetic energy harvesting system that could use energy from a passing train to deliver sufficient electrical power for sensing nodes. Measured mechanical vibrations of regional and express trains were used in laboratory testing of the developed energy harvesting device with an integrated resistive load and wireless transmission system, and based on these tests the proposed technology shows a high potential for railway applications.

This paper deals with a development and lab testing of energy harvesting technology for autonomous sensing in railway applications. Moving trains are subjected to high levels of vibrations and rail deformations that could be converted via energy harvesting into useful electricity. Modern maintenance solutions of a rail trackside typically consist of a large number of integrated sensing systems, which greatly benefit from autonomous source of energy. Although the amount of energy provided by conventional energy harvesting devices is usually only around several milliwatts, it is sufficient as a source of electrical power for low power sensing devices. The main aim of this paper is to design and test a kinetic electromagnetic energy harvesting system that could use energy from a passing train to deliver sufficient electrical power for sensing nodes. Measured mechanical vibrations of regional and express trains were used in laboratory testing of the developed energy harvesting device with an integrated resistive load and wireless transmission system, and based on these tests the proposed technology shows a high potential for railway applications.

With the aim of increasing the efficiency of maintenance and fuel usage in airplanes, structural health monitoring (SHM) of critical composite structures is increasingly expected and required. The optimized usage of this concept is subject of intensive work in the framework of the EU COST Action CA18203 “Optimising Design for Inspection” (ODIN). In this context, a thorough review of a broad range of energy harvesting (EH) technologies to be potentially used as power sources for the acoustic emission and guided wave propagation sensors of the considered SHM systems, as well as for the respective data elaboration and wireless communication modules, is provided in this work. EH devices based on the usage of kinetic energy, thermal gradients, solar radiation, airflow, and other viable energy sources, proposed so far in the literature, are thus described with a critical review of the respective specific power levels, of their potential placement on airplanes, as well as the consequently necessary power management architectures. The guidelines provided for the selection of the most appropriate EH and power management technologies create the preconditions to develop a new class of autonomous sensor nodes for the in-process, non-destructive SHM of airplane components.

With the aim of increasing the efficiency of maintenance and fuel usage in airplanes, structural health monitoring (SHM) of critical composite structures is increasingly expected and required. The optimized usage of this concept is subject of intensive work in the framework of the EU COST Action CA18203 “Optimising Design for Inspection” (ODIN). In this context, a thorough review of a broad range of energy harvesting (EH) technologies to be potentially used as power sources for the acoustic emission and guided wave propagation sensors of the considered SHM systems, as well as for the respective data elaboration and wireless communication modules, is provided in this work. EH devices based on the usage of kinetic energy, thermal gradients, solar radiation, airflow, and other viable energy sources, proposed so far in the literature, are thus described with a critical review of the respective specific power levels, of their potential placement on airplanes, as well as the consequently necessary power management architectures. The guidelines provided for the selection of the most appropriate EH and power management technologies create the preconditions to develop a new class of autonomous sensor nodes for the in-process, non-destructive SHM of airplane components.