VIBRATION-BASED ENERGY HARVESTER FOR SUSTAINABLE STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM: A CASE STUDY ON A PRESTRESSED CONCRETE GIRDER

Author:
Tuan Minh Ha, Saiji Fukada, Toshiyuki Ueno, Duc-Duy Ho

Doi: 10.26480/jtin.01.2021.16.19

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Energy harvesting technology generating electrical energy from structural responses has been in the spotlight recently because of the development of self-powered autonomous wireless sensor systems. This study proposed and tested a high-sensitivity, high-durability, low-cost vibration power-generating device using a magnetostrictive element (Fe-Ga alloy) on a real-scale prestressed concrete girder to investigate its practical performance. The device comprises a unimorph layer having a magnetostrictive element attached to a U-shaped frame with a permanent magnet for magnetic bias wound about by a coil. An evaluation of a prototype device using a Fe-Ga element of 4 × 0.5 × 16 mm was performed. With a weight of 1221 g attached, an open-circuit voltage of ~1 V at an oscillation of 9.058 Hz and 3.8 m/s2 was generated by free damped vibrations applied via a person jumping vertically from a chair to the girder. In addition, parametric studies were carried out by changing impact locations, weights, and device locations in order to examine their possible effects on the performance of the proposed energy harvester.

Pages 16-19
Year 2021
Issue 1
Volume 1