Performance testing of a low power consumption wireless sensor communication system integrated with an energy harvesting power source

This paper presents the performance testing results of a wireless sensor communication system with low power consumption integrated with a vibration energy harvesting power source. The experiments focus on the system’s capability to perform continuous monitoring and to wirelessly transmit the data acquired from the sensors to a user base station, completely battery-free. Energy harvesting technologies together with system design optimisation for power consumption minimisation ensure the system’s energy autonomous capability demonstrated in this paper by presenting the promising testing results achieved following its integration with Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Body Area Network (BAN) applications

Power management for energy harvesting

The use of wireless sensor networks in aircraft health management grew exponentially over the past few decades. Wireless sensor networks provide technology that reduces the amount of wiring for aircraft, thereby reducing the weight and cost of aircraft. One of the most significant limitations in the use of wireless sensor networks in aircraft health management systems is the availability of power sources. Developing Wireless Sensor Network nodes that can generate and harvest their autonomous power supply continuously is a bottleneck that has been the preoccupation of engineers for many years. The amount of energy a network of Wireless Sensors can harvest fluctuates and is difficult to predict. As a result, existing predictors of energy harvesting are prone to errors. Models-free schemes such as expert systems are thus preferred for energy management strategies. The main aim of this thesis is to propose expert-based systems for energy harvesting in aircraft to enhance wireless sensor nodes life span by improving energy harvesting, energy storage and packet loss probability. In this context, a novel integrated approach based on the Markov chain was proposed for energy harvesting in aircraft. Simulation results and quantitative analysis showed that the integration of Piezoelectric and Thermoelectric harvesters with stochastic scheduling had a better performance in terms of energy storage, energy harvesting and packet loss probability. There was also an increase in energy storage with five Markov states compared to that of two Markov states. The packet loss probability of the integrated approach with five Markov states was better than that of two Markov states. The results also showed that the integrated approach with five Markov states harvested more energy than two Markov states. The novel integration of LTspice and NS-3 simulators was proposed. The LTspice and NS-3 integration was validated by deploying the Fuzzy logic control approach in energy harvesting. Simulation results and quantitative analysis based on Fuzzy control logic expert system indicated that the integration of LTspice and NS-3 was found to be better in energy harvesting compared to non-fuzzy control systems. The downtime ratio and energy utilization efficiency of the wireless sensor nodes were also found to be better than non-fuzzy control. The power management based LEACH routing protocol was also proposed. The simulation results and quantitative analysis showed that the average harvested energy based on the LEACH routing protocol deployed with fuzzy logic and Markov chain was better compared to those with direct communication based on Markov chain and fuzzy logic systems.Aerospac

Vibration energy harvesters for wireless sensor networks for aircraft health monitoring

Traditional power supply for wireless sensor nodes is batteries. However, the application of batteries in WSN has been limited due to their large size, low capacity, limited working life, and replacement cost. With rapid advancements in microelectronics, power consumption of WSN is getting lower and hence the energy harvested from ambient may be sufficient to power the tiny sensor nodes and eliminate batteries completely. As vibration is the widespread ambient source that exists in abundance on an aircraft, a WSN node system used for aircraft health monitoring powered by a piezoelectric energy harvester was designed and manufactured. Furthermore, simulations were performed to validate the design and evaluate the performance. In addition, the Z-Stack protocol was migrated to run on the system and initial experiments were carried out to analyse the current consumption of the system. A new approach for power management was reported, the execution of the operations were determined by the amount of the energy stored on the capacitor. A novel power saving interface was also developed to minimise the power consumption during the voltage measurement

Structural Health Monitoring from Sensing to Processing

Providing the best availability of aircrafts is a key driver in aeronautics industry. Monitoring system able to detect signs of failure before they happen, thanks to sensors and diagnosis/prognosis algorithms, is key for improving aircraft operability. Since a suspension system is connecting the engine to the aircraft, after hard landing, aircraft companies need to know if the suspension system is safe or could have been damaged. This chapter presents an autonomous wireless load sensing recorder development that will enable maintenance operators to make a relevant diagnosis of the suspension system by measuring the load level seen after a hard landing by connecting a portable device near the embedded sensor system. The sensor integrates energy harvesting and RFID communication modules that have been developed for this application. Data acquisition is performed by an embedded microcontroller connected to sensors. The paper is firstly dedicated to the different energy sources available in the project application (engine pods). The second part gives a presentation of the various devices developed for converting ambient energy into electric power and SHM system. The last part presents real measurement of ambient energy level from real tests in comparison to the energy needed to power the system

Energy harvesting technologies for structural health monitoring of airplane components - a review

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.The work of S. Zelenika, P. Gljušcic, E. Kamenar and Ž. Vrcan is partly enabled by using the equipment funded via the EU European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) project no. RC.2.2.06-0001: “Research Infrastructure for Campus-based Laboratories at the University of Rijeka (RISK)” and partly supported by the University of Rijeka, Croatia, project uniri-tehnic-18-32 „Advanced mechatronics devices for smart technological solutions“. Z. Hadas, P. Tofel and O. Ševecek acknowledge the support provided via the Czech Science Foundation project GA19-17457S „Manufacturing and analysis of flexible piezoelectric layers for smart engineering”. J. Hlinka, F. Ksica and O. Rubes gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the ESIF, EU Operational Programme Research, Development and Education within the research project Center of Advanced Aerospace Technology (Reg. No.: CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000826) at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology. V. Pakrashi would like to acknowledge UCD Energy Institute, Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) centre Ireland, Strengthening Infrastructure Risk Assessment in the Atlantic Area (SIRMA) Grant No. EAPA\826/2018, EU INTERREG Atlantic Area and Aquaculture Operations with Reliable Flexible Shielding Technologies for Prevention of Infestation in Offshore and Coastal Areas (FLEXAQUA), MarTera Era-Net cofund PBA/BIO/18/02 projects. The work of J.P.B. Silva is partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/FIS/04650/2020. M. Mrlik gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic-DKRVO (RP/CPS/2020/003

Inductive power line harvester with flux guidance for self-powered sensors

Self-powered sensors are expected to enable new large-scale deployment and location access capabilities for sensor systems. Energy harvesting devices have been shown to provide adequate power densities but their dependence on very specific environmental conditions restricts their applicability. Energy harvesting from power line infrastructure offers an architecture for addressing this challenge, because such infrastructure is widely available. In this paper an inductive power line harvester concept is presented, based on a flux concentration approach adapted to a closed-loop core geometry. Flux concentration is studied by simulation, showing a 26% flux increase using a 1:3 geometrical concentration ratio in a closed-loop core. A 20×20×25 mm prototype with a U-shaped soft-core sheet and a 200-turn Cu coil around a 5 mm diameter, 20 mm long soft-core rod is introduced. The total device volume is 9.1 cm 3 . Characterization results on a power line evaluation setup for currents up to 35 A RMS and a 50 Hz – 1 kHz range are presented. Power between 2.2 mW (50 Hz) and 233 mW (1 kHz) is demonstrated on an ohmic load, from a 10 A RMS power line current, employing impedance matching with reactance cancellation. The corresponding power densities are 0.24 mW/cm 3 and 25 mW/cm 3 respectively, per total device volume. This performance is adequate for enabling self-powered wireless sensor networks installed along power distribution lines

Energy Harvesting for Aeronautic Applications

Práce bude zaměřena na vytvoření elektromagnetického vibračního generátoru pro projekt ESPOSA. Tento generátor bude určen pro leteckou aplikaci, kde bude napájet potřebnou elektroniku. Elektronikou je myšlena část, která bude snímat, zapisovat a posílat potřebná data.This thesis will focus on creating electromagnetic vibration generator for a project ESPOSA. This generator will be used in aeronautical application. There it will be powering required electronics. Electronics is thought a part, which will be sensing, writing and sending required data.

Clamped closed-loop flux guides for power line inductive harvesting

Inductive harvesting from existing power lines in vehicle, industrial and infrastructure environments offers an opportunity for providing energy autonomy to sensors in a wide range of environments with high sensing interest. Flux funnelling has been shown to improve the power density of such devices by over an order of magnitude. The requirement for retrofitting onto existing power lines leads to a demand for detachable magnetic core interfaces, which introduce gaps and uncertainty to device performance. In this paper, an inductive energy harvesting device design that addresses this challenge is introduced. The design allows the interfaces to be internal to the device housing. Repeatable fixing, with reduced sensitivity to installation practicalities and controllable force is achieved by a screw-pressing mechanism, and the employment of a hard polyoxymethylene housing material. This method is utilized in an inductive power-line prototype, demonstrating power output up to 260 mW from a 40 A RMS, 500 Hz current, emulating aircraft power lines

Power supply based on inductive harvesting from structural currents

Monitoring infrastructure offers functional optimisation, lower maintenance cost, security, stability and data analysis benefits. Sensor nodes require some level of energy autonomy for reliable and cost-effective operation, and energy harvesting methods have been developed in the last two decades for this purpose. Here, a power supply that collects, stores and delivers regulated power from the stray magnetic field of currentcarrying structures is presented. In cm-scale structures the skin effect concentrates current at edges at frequencies even below 1 kHz. A coil-core inductive transducer is designed. A fluxfunnelling soft magnetic core shape is used, multiplying power density by the square of funnelling ratio. A power management circuit combining reactance cancellation, voltage doubling, rectification, super-capacitor storage and switched inductor voltage boosting and regulation is introduced. The power supply is characterised in house and on a full-size industrial setup, demonstrating a power reception density of 0.36 mW/cm3, 0.54 mW/cm3 and 0.73 mW/cm3 from a 25 A RMS structural current at 360 Hz, 500 Hz and 800 Hz respectively, corresponding to the frequency range of aircraft currents. The regulated output is tested under various loads and cold starting is demonstrated. The introduced method may enable power autonomy to wireless sensors deployed in current-carrying infrastructure

Advanced Nanoelectromechanical Systems for Next Generation Energy Harvesting

The ever-increasing desire to produce portable, mobile and self-powered wireless micro-/nano systems (MNSs) with extended lifetimes has lead to the significant advancement in the area of mechanical energy harvesting over the last few years and it has been possible not only because has nanotechnology evolved as a powerful tool for the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale, but also different micro-/nano fabrication techniques have enabled researchers and scientists to create, visualize, analyse and manipulate nano-structures, as well as to probe their nano-chemistry, nano-mechanics and other properties within the systems. The dissertation first discusses briefly about energy harvesting technologies for self-powered MNSs, for example a wireless aircraft structural health monitoring (SHM) system, with a particular focus on piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) as they are the most promising approaches for converting ambient tiny mechanical energy into electrical energy efficiently and effectively and then it analyzes the theoretical and experimental methodologies for efficient energy harvesting using PENG, TENG and hybrid devices. The piezoelectric property intertwined with the semiconducting behaviour of different ZnO nanostructures has made them ideal candidate for piezoelectric energy harvesting, also intensive and state-of-the-art research has been going on to enhance the performance of the PENG devices based on 1D and 2D ZnO nanostructures. In this work, a high performance and consolidated PENG device based on the integration of ZnO nanowires and nanoplates on the same substrate has been demonstrated, that produces an output electrical power of 8.4 µW/cm2 at the matched load of 10MΩ that manifests their ability for powering up different MNSs. Since hybrid nanogenerators (HNG) integrate different types of harvesters in a single unit, where several energy sources can be leveraged either simultaneously or individually, in the next part of this work, a HNG device integrating PENG and TENG components has been designed, fabricated and characterized where PENG and TENG parts mutually enhance the performance of each other resulting an instantaneous peak power density of 1.864mW/cm2 and subsequently the device has been used to charge several commercial capacitors to corroborate their potential for aircraft SHM applications. Moreover, the hybrid device exhibits strong potential for wearable electronics as it can harvest energy from human walking and normal hand movements. However, successful implementation of self-powered electronics, such as a wireless aircraft SHM depends not only on the performance of individual parts but also on components integration within the system, where each device/system node within the network consists of a low-power microcontroller unit, high-performance data-processing/storage units, a wireless signal transceiver, ultrasensitive sensors based on a micro-/nano electro-mechanical system, and most importantly the embedded powering units. This dissertation aims to deepen the understanding of the different energy harvesting methods utilizing the knowledge of nanoscale phenomena and nanofabrication tools along with the associated prospects and challenges and thus, this research in the field of energy harvesting using advanced nano electro-mechanical systems could have a substantial impact on many areas, ranging from the fundamental study of new nanomaterial properties and different effects in nanostructures to diverse applications