IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tjrtxx/v12y2024i3p514-531.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thermoelectric energy harvesting for wireless onboard rail condition monitoring

Author

Listed:
  • Heinrich Foltz
  • Constantine Tarawneh
  • Martin Amaro
  • Sebastian Thomas
  • Danna Capitanachi Avila

Abstract

A thermoelectric energy harvesting device is evaluated to power a bearing health monitoring system. Unlike wayside equipment, the new system is an onboard wireless solution utilizing accelerometer and temperature sensors to assess the bearing condition continuously. The harvesting system consists of two thermoelectric generator modules with aluminium heat sinks, a switching boost converter, a battery management circuit, and a lithium rechargeable battery. The performance of the harvester is validated on an AAR class bearing mounted on a laboratory tester, with load and speed simulating common freight routes of up to 896 miles. The energy harvested varies with operating conditions, and data is presented showing the effect of load and speed. Over a realistic route, the net energy harvested is more than double that needed to indefinitely power a Bluetooth Low Energy sensor. The critical design parameters are the ratio of open-circuit voltage to the temperature difference for the thermoelectric module, and the cold start voltage of the boost converter.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinrich Foltz & Constantine Tarawneh & Martin Amaro & Sebastian Thomas & Danna Capitanachi Avila, 2024. "Thermoelectric energy harvesting for wireless onboard rail condition monitoring," International Journal of Rail Transportation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 514-531, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tjrtxx:v:12:y:2024:i:3:p:514-531
    DOI: 10.1080/23248378.2023.2201247
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/23248378.2023.2201247
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/23248378.2023.2201247?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tjrtxx:v:12:y:2024:i:3:p:514-531. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tjrt20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.