Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Experimental Validation of Piezoelectric Energy-Harvesting Device for Built Infrastructure Applications
    (American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2018-06-05) ; ;
    Vibration energy-harvesting devices are increasingly becoming more efficient and useful. The performance of such devices for energy harvesting from vibrations of civil infrastructure can be theoretically quantified, and energy harvesting under harmonic loadings can be validated experimentally. Experimental validation of such devices for civil infrastructure applications, such as bridges, remains an important but more complex and challenging issue, in part due to the more uncertain nature of the dynamic response of structures under operational conditions and problems with access for such testing. Lack of existing experimental benchmarks is also a major obstacle behind adopting this technology for bridges. This study presents a laboratory-based experimental procedure through which a piezoelectric energy harvester was experimentally verified for rail bridges in their operational condition with trains traversing them. A general experimental arrangement required for validating a piezoelectric cantilever energy-harvesting device is presented, along with the fabrication of a prototype device and detailed experimental setup. A model bridge undergoing loadings from an international train fleet was chosen, and the acceleration response from the bridge was used as the excitation source for the energy-harvesting device. Numerically estimated performances of the energy harvester were validated by experimentation for a range of trains. The method is applicable for validating energy harvesting from arbitrary vibrations of built infrastructure within the laboratory environment without the need of scaling. The device and related experimental procedure will serve as a benchmark for similar unscaled tests within a laboratory environment and can be useful for assessing devices or their applications in monitoring built infrastructure under realistic conditions without the need for deployment on site.
      452Scopus© Citations 21
  • Publication
    Vibration energy harvesting based monitoring of an operational bridge undergoing forced vibration and train passage
    The application of energy harvesting technology for monitoring civil infrastructure is a bourgeoning topic of interest. The ability of kinetic energy harvesters to scavenge ambient vibration energy can be useful for large civil infrastructure under operational conditions, particularly for bridge structures. The experimental integration of such harvesters with full scale structures and the subsequent use of the harvested energy directly for the purposes of structural health monitoring shows promise. This paper presents the first experimental deployment of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting devices for monitoring a full-scale bridge undergoing forced dynamic vibrations under operational conditions using energy harvesting signatures against time. The calibration of the harvesters is presented, along with details of the host bridge structure and the dynamic assessment procedures. The measured responses of the harvesters from the tests are presented and the use the harvesters for the purposes of structural health monitoring (SHM) is investigated using empirical mode decomposition analysis, following a bespoke data cleaning approach. Finally, the use of sequential Karhunen Loeve transforms to detect train passages during the dynamic assessment is presented. This study is expected to further develop interest in energy-harvesting based monitoring of large infrastructure for both research and commercial purposes.
    Scopus© Citations 106  570
  • Publication
    Structural health monitoring of reinforced concrete beam using piezoelectric energy harvesting system
    (INRIA Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique, 2014-07-11) ; ; ; ;
    There has been focus in recent times in the creation of smart, wireless sensor networks for the purposes of Structural Health Monitoring of large scale civil infrastructure. However, the power requirements of such networks are dependent on finite batteries, which limit the effectiveness of such a system. The use of energy harvesters, however, offers a viable and attractive solution to this problem. This paper investigates the use of such energy harvesters not only to power wireless sensor nodes, but to also act in the process as a damage detection tool. The properties and creation of such energy harvesters is detailed in full. The effects of damage on a simply supported reinforced concrete beam are investigated through finite element analysis. The use of the energy harvesters for damage detection is subsequently investigated and the feasibility of using such harvesters is experimentally validated. The simultaneous power of wireless sensor nodes by the harvesters is determined and an energy harvesting circuit is examined in this regard. This paper establishes the basis and viability of using an energy harvesting system for use in this dual role.
      155
  • Publication
    Laboratory based experimental investigation of patch based piezoelectric energy harvesters for civil infrastructure
    (University College Dublin, 2018-08-30) ; ;
    Vibration energy harvesting technology applications for civil infrastructure has received significant interest in recent times. This is due to the advantages that are associated with power independent, output only energy harvesters which have the potential to act as either the power supply to low-power wireless sensors or as power independent sensors. Studies into the deployment of such harvesters with civil infrastructure applications have shown a potential range of applications ranging including high-rise buildings, pipelines, bridge infrastructure and wind turbine structures. While there can be immense cost associated with validation of energy harvesters through full-scale testing with civil infrastructure, laboratory based validation provides an inexpensive method of validating specific vibration energy harvesting devices with individual structures. By applying available datasets of vibrational response of civil infrastructure to the device using the shaker unit, the individual devices may be tested for realistic excitation conditions without any scaling of the structures vibrational response being required. This paper considers the use of laboratory based testing procedures for the experimental validation of patch based energy harvesters. The theoretical performance of the harvester for a model bridge undergoing train loadings is determined and the performance using measured datasets from full scale testing for train bridge interaction is similarly shown. An experimental setup is created to experimentally test the energy harvesters and the results of the experimental results versus the theoretical expectations are compared. This paper helps further establish the importance of laboratory based testing for vibration energy harvesters with civil infrastructure applications.
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