Structural Health Monitoring

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Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transmission for Embedded SHM Sensor Nodes
Kevin M. Farinholt, Nathan Miller, Wilfredo Sifuentes, Jason MacDonald, Gyuhae Park and Charles R. Farrar
Structural Health Monitoring published online 23 March 2010
DOI: 10.1177/1475921710366647

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 Structural Health Monitoring OnlineFirst, published on March 23, 2010 as doi:10.1177/1475921710366647

Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy

Transmission for Embedded SHM
Sensor Nodes

Kevin M. Farinholt, Nathan Miller, Wilfredo Sifuentes, Jason MacDonald,

Gyuhae Park* and Charles R. Farrar

Engineering Institute MS T001, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos

NM 87544, USA

In this article, we present experimental investigations using energy harvesting and wireless
energy transmission to power wireless structural health monitoring sensor nodes. The goal
of this study is to develop sensing systems that can be permanently embedded within a host
structure without the need for an on-board power source. With this approach the required
energy will be harvested from the ambient environment, or periodically delivered by a
radio-frequency energy source to supplement conventional harvesting approaches.
This approach combines several transducer types to harvest energy from multiple sources,
providing a more robust solution that does not rely on a single energy source. Both piezo-
electric and thermoelectric transducers are considered as energy harvesters to extract the
ambient energy commonly available on civil structures such as bridges. Methods of increas-
ing the efficiency, energy storage medium, target applications and the integrated use of
energy harvesting sources with wireless energy transmission will be presented.

Keywords energy harvesting  wireless energy transmission  wireless sensor node 

impedance method  piezoelectric transducers.

1 Introduction using hardware and software components designed

The trend toward wireless sensing networks
offers advantages in numerous engineering appli-
cations. In the present work we consider sensor
nodes designed specifically for structural health
monitoring (SHM). The purpose of the SHM
sensor node is to improve the safety and reliability
of aerospace, civil, and mechanical infrastructure
by detecting damage before it reaches a critical
state. The SHM process can be implemented
to provide cost-effective condition-based mainte-
nance schedules [1], augmenting or replacing
traditional time-based inspection methods. One
promising method for implementing SHM techni-
ques is through the use of piezoelectric active mate-
rial sensors and actuators. Such active sensors are
very efficient in assessing the health of localized
areas of a structure; however, for large-scale sys-
tems it may be necessary to incorporate hundreds
or even thousands of individual sensors. The cost

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E-mail: gpark@lanl.gov Vol 0(0): 1–12
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2 Structural Health Monitoring 0(0)
of implementing such a vast network of sensors
using traditional wired systems can be very high
due to the installation and maintenance costs asso-
ciated with the wiring itself. This has lead to the
recent shift toward wireless sensor nodes designed
specifically for SHM [2,3].
The ability to operate wirelessly allows the
sensor node to be installed in locations that would
otherwise be difficult or impossible for traditional
wired systems. The flexibility that comes with a wire-
less sensor node makes it more amenable for integra-
tion within civil, aerospace, or industrial structures,
as they can be integrated into the design of future
systems, or used to retrofit existing structures with-
out the need for significant modifications. However,
this desired flexibility also comes with necessary
design considerations regarding the need for a reli-
able and sustainable method for powering the sensor
node. Most commercially available and R&D proto-
type nodes rely on conventional battery technolo-
gies, requiring the periodic recharge or replacement
of the power supply. One option meant to address
this issue is the integration of energy harvesting stra-
tegies that could extend the life of, or ultimately
replace, the battery embedded within the wireless
sensor node. In this approach the node is designed
to scavenge ambient energy from the host structure
or its surrounding environment, convert it into a
form (typically electrical) that can be stored or used
directly to power the desired instrumentation [4–7].
In SHM applications the most common forms of
available energy include thermal gradients and
mechanical vibrations; however, other potential
sources include solar, wind, and acoustic energy in
some applications. While extensive research has
focused on the development of an effective energy
harvester, the amount of scavenged energy often
falls below the levels needed to power sensing,
on-board processing, and telemetry subcomponents
on the standard wireless sensor node, and this is espe-
cially true for nodes with active sensing capabilities.
To address these issues our team has worked to
develop a sensor node with the explicit intent that
it be able to operate on harvested energy, or energy
collected from directed radio-frequency (RF) energy
transmission.
One approach to improving the sensor nodes
performance is to develop a hybrid, or multi-
source energy harvesting solution, where energy
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is extracted from a combination of different
sources (e.g., thermal, mechanical, chemical). The
energy from each of these sources is then condi-
tioned and used to charge a common storage
medium. Such an approach could be used to aug-
ment batteries that are installed in the sensor node,
or they could be coupled with a directed RF energy
system that could periodically bring energy near
the sensor node, allowing the node to harvest direc-
ted microwave energy and use it to supplement the
energy harvesting system.
In this article we present several studies per-
formed to (1) characterize the potential of several
energy harvesting solutions, and to (2) develop a
hybrid energy solution that could be used in the
field to operate a recently developed low power
sensor node. The sensor node under consideration
is capable of measuring and recording the electrical
impedance of piezoelectric transducers, providing
information about the structural health of a system
through the coupled electromechanical properties
of the piezoelectric. This sensor node combines sev-
eral components, including a microcontroller for
onboard computing, telemetry for wireless data
transmission, multiplexers for managing up to
seven piezoelectric transducers per node, energy
harvesting and storage mediums, and wireless trig-
gering circuits into one package that offers a com-
prehensive, self-contained active-sensor node for
SHM applications.
2 The Wireless Impedance Device
The target device for this energy harvesting/
transmission study is the wireless impedance
device (WID), a technology previously developed
by the authors. This hardware is designed to pro-
vide active sensing capabilities that can be
embedded within a structure, while offering flexible
power options that include traditional batteries,
energy harvesting devices, or RF energy transmis-
sion. Several generations of this hardware have
been developed, starting from the WID1 bread-
board prototype to the current WID3 generation.
The following sections provide a description of the
sensing mechanism that is being exploited by this
sensor node as well as the general operating cap-
abilities of the current WID3 sensor node.
 Farinholt et al. Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transmission 3

2.1 The Impedance Method for SHM Integrated chip AT26F004

Zigbit µ-controller antenna 8Mbit memory
Active sensors are often used in SHM applica- with telemetry
tions to identify and locate corrosive, impact, or
joint-related damage within civil and aerospace 0.1F aerogel
structures. The authors have developed a series of capacitor
compact, energy efficient sensor nodes that moni-
tor the structural health of a system through the
electrical impedance of piezoelectric (PZT) trans-
ducers embedded within the host structure. When
ATAK5278
bonded to a mechanical system, the electrical wakeup chip
impedance of the piezoelectric active sensor is
directly coupled with the mechanical impedance 3V DC
of the structure. In SHM applications damage connector JTAG connector PZT sensor connector
will manifest itself as a change, or shift, in the
Battery holder Wakeup antenna
mechanical impedance of the system, which is
then reflected as a change in the electrical proper-
ties of the piezoelectric transducer [8–12].
Another critical aspect of the impedance
method is that it can be implemented with rela- AD5933
tively low power, compared to other active-sensing impedance
SHM techniques such as Lamb wave based meth- chip
ods. The impedance method also has application in
sensor self-diagnostics in determining the opera- ADG708/9
tional status of piezoelectric active-sensors used multiplexer
in SHM [13–15].

2.2 The Wireless Impedance Node Real-time clock RF power circuit

The WID was developed from capabilities
demonstrated in previous studies of the
impedance-based SHM method. Each generation
of the WID has been designed to implement the
impedance method on a structure using the
AD5933 impedance chip from Analog Devices.
The first generations of the WID (1 and 1.5) pro-
vided single sensor measurement, onboard process-
ing, and wireless telemetry [16]. While this
prototype demonstrated the feasibility of develop-
ing a low power sensor node for impedance-based
monitoring, some limitations were identified
regarding the number of sensors that could be
interrogated, triggering capabilities, and the
power consuming telemetry module. Thus, the
WID2 was developed with many unique features
that allow for diverse SHM operation [17]. This
version was designed to be highly compact with
overall board dimensions of 5.5  3.7 cm2, approx-
imately the size of a standard business card.
The most recent generation of impedance-based
Figure 1 Prinicpal components of the newest genera-
tions Wireless Impedance Device (WID 3.0).
wireless sensor node evolves from the capabilities
of the WID2. The WID3 (Figure 1) offers
advanced communication capabilities, increased
triggering options as well as multiple power
options coupled with a power conditioning circuit
that facilitates the use of a variety of energy har-
vesting options. The WID3 can self-configure into
a network with neighboring sensor nodes at fixed
time intervals or in the presence of a ‘mobile host’
that is brought in to interrogate the sensor net-
work. The power conditioning option only allows
the WID3 to operate when voltage levels are
between 2.7 and 3.5 V, limiting data corruption at
low power levels and improving charge times as the
WID3 will not drain energy from the power source
once the voltage drops below 2.7 V. The WID3 is
also designed to function as an impedance-based

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4 Structural Health Monitoring 0(0)
module that can be docked with a secondary data
acquisition board, which offers time-domain mea-
surement capabilities. The telemetry and imped-
ance capabilities of the WID3 can be utilized in
this configuration to offer a highly functional
sensor node. The integrated sensor node provides
both actuation and sensing capabilities into a
single package with the ability to implement
multiple SHM techniques for the rapid health
assessment of civil, aerospace and mechanical
infrastructure.
Power Consumption: The WID3 has very low
power consumption, especially considering the
active nature of its measurements. The current
draw during various modes of operation was
recorded and is shown in Table 1. The WID3 oper-
ates at 2.8 V and takes 16 s to measure four sensors
with 100 points and four averages per point. With
data reduction, only a few seconds are required to
transmit data to a base station, or a few micro-
seconds to store the data on the onboard memory.
Initial testing indicates that the current draw could
be reduced to approximately 0.01 mA with proper
use of sleep modes. With these steps, it is conceiv-
able that the WID3 could take, analyze, record and
send one measurement per day for well in excess of
5 years on two conventional AA lithium batteries.
Power Conditioning Circuit: With the power
requirements outlined in Table 1, the WID can
be powered by a wide range of energy harvesting
methods. The WID3 is also configured with a
power conditioning circuit that allows it to accept
power from numerous sources, including energy
harvesting and RF energy transmission. When
configured to operate from the onboard 0.1F
capacitor, the power conditioner prevents power
from being released to the Zigbit microcontroller
until the capacitor reaches 3.5 V. At this level the
circuit releases its energy, powering the microcon-
troller which performs measurements and either
Table 1 Current draw for the WID in various states
Current
Mode (mA)
Measurement 26
Data transmission 22
Sleep mode 0.075
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processes, stores, or transmits the collected data.
For most operations this will drain the capacitor
to 2.8 V. As the voltage drops below 2.7 V the cir-
cuit disconnects power from the Zigbit, effectively
limiting the leakage current to <2 nA, through an
analog switch. The retained energy within the
capacitor greatly reduces subsequent charge times.
Most research on energy harvesting has
focused on determining the maximum amount of
energy that can be generated, rather than applica-
tions and uses of the harvested energy. The practi-
cal applications for energy harvesting systems,
such as wireless self-powered SHM sensing net-
works, must be clearly identified with emphasis
on power management issues, which allow for
application-specific, design-oriented approaches
and the practical use of these technologies.
Therefore in this study, we identify the WID3 as
the target application of energy harvesting and
wireless energy transmission. It is the author’s
firm belief that the energy harvesting system must
be designed along with a specific target application
in order to fully utilize its potentials.
3 Energy Harvesting
Two sources of ambient energy were consid-
ered in this energy harvesting study: residual vibra-
tions of a bridge and the thermal gradients that
develop between the bridge surface and the sur-
rounding air. For this testing, data were first col-
lected from a local highway bridge, and the same
conditions were replicated in the laboratory envi-
ronment through the use of an electromagnetic
shaker and hotplate. The transducers used to
extract this energy were piezoceramic transducers
for the mechanical energy, and commercially
available thermoelectric generators (TEG) for the
thermal gradients.
3.1 Available Ambient Energy
The first stage in this study was to collect
environmental data from the Omega Bridge in
Power Los Alamos, NM, shown in Figure 2. Vibration
(mW) measurements were taken at several locations
72.8 along the outer steel girder on the western side of
61.6 the bridge. PCB Model 352A24 accelerometers
0.21
were placed 3 m from the southern bridge
 Farinholt et al. Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transmission 5

× 10–4

19.98 Hz

2
12.19 Hz

Magnitude
28.44

0
Accelerometer 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Locations
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 3 Autospectrum of the acceleration data

measured on the Omega Bridge in Los Alamos, NM.

Figure 2 The vibrations and thermal characteristics Pos. A

of the Omega Bridge were used in this study.
Accelerometers were positioned along the western steel Pos. B
girder of the bridge.

Pos. C

abutment, and time histories were captured as

normal traffic excited the bridge. The resulting
data was collected using a LDS-Dactron Photon
II data acquisition system. Temperature measure-
ments were made hourly at several locations along
the concrete deck of the bridge throughout the day
using a handheld Fluke Model 62 infrared ther-
mometer. These results were compared to ambient
air measurements to estimate the thermal gradients
that would develop at different times of the day.
The collected vibration data was used to iden-
tify the fundamental frequencies of the bridge. One
example of the resulting data is shown in Figure 3,
corresponding to the transverse motion of the web-
bing in one of the steel I-beams supporting the
southern-most span of the bridge. Using the fre-
quency content of this data, cantilever beams could
be designed to resonate at one of the dominant
frequencies exhibited by test structure, yielding
the maximum potential harvested energy. The fre-
quency response data was obtained by conducting
a fast Fourier transform on the data and construct-
ing the autospectrum shown in Figure 3. The
results of this spectral analysis were also used to
Figure 4 Temperature measurement locations along
the Omega Bridge.
develop excitation signals that would be used to
drive the cantilevered energy harvesters in a
manner that would emulate the operating environ-
ment of the bridge.
Similarly, temperature measurements were
taken along the length of the bridge, as indicated
in Figure 4. These measurements were subse-
quently compared with the ambient air tempera-
tures to develop the thermal gradient one would
expect for a thermoelectric transducer mounted
on the bridge deck. These thermal gradients are
presented in Figure 5 for three positions along
the bridge. It is seen from this figure that the

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6 Structural Health Monitoring 0(0)

thermoelectric would be ineffective in the morning
as the bridge began warming; however, it should
become highly effective at midday as temperature
differentials reached levels as high as 33 C. In the
early afternoon heavy cloud cover set in and the
thermal gradient dropped significantly; however,
they were seen to increase later in the afternoon
as the cloud cover dispersed. Position C corre-
sponds to the expansion joint of the bridge
shown in Figure 4, and was seen to be the most
responsive location to thermal variations. This
location was predominantly in the shade during
35
30
Temperature differential (C)
the morning; however the surface temperature
was seen to rise rapidly after 12PM when it was
exposed to full sun.
3.2 Energy Harvesting Experiment
For the vibration-based energy harvesting
experiments, PZTs where mounted in a bimorph
configuration with thin aluminum or steel sub-
strates that were cantilevered from a test fixture
that provided a base excitation to the sample as
seen in Figure 6. A bimorph configuration was
chosen to increase the output power of the
energy harvester by scavenging both compressive
and tensile loads that alternate between the upper
Pos. A and lower surfaces of the substrate. When mounted
Pos. B
Pos. C in this configuration the PZT responds to a change

25 in length due to the curvature of the substrate

material. The length of the substrate was used to
20
tune the energy harvester’s natural frequency to
15 match one of the fundamental frequencies
observed in the vibration response of the Omega
10
Bridge. Once the energy harvesters had been tuned
5 they were characterized with harmonic and
multi-frequency base excitations through the elec-
0
tromagnetic shaker. The multi-frequency source
–5 was a filtered form of the bridge data that had
8A 9A 10A 11A 12P 1P 2P 3P 4P 5P
been preconditioned by the shaker’s input–output
Time
transfer function.
Figure 5 Temperature difference between concrete For thermoelectric energy generation, a
deck of the Omega Bridge and the ambient air Tellurex Corporation model C1-1.4-127-1.65
temperature. thermoelectric generator was used in this study.

Piezoceramic patches
(top and bottom)
Clamped
condition
Steel substrate

Electromagnetic
Shaker

Figure 6 Cantilevered beam with piezoceramic patches mounted in a bimorph configuration, subjected to base
excitations.

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 Farinholt et al. Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transmission 7

The TEG device is composed of p-type and n-type 3

junctions that are arranged thermally in parallel

2.5
and electrically in series to convert energy between

Capacitor voltage (V)

the thermal and electrical domains. These devices
2
rely on the Seebeck effect, which describes the cur-
rent that results from the junction of two dissimilar 1.5
p- and n-type metals when subjected to a thermal
gradient. 1
With the measured temperature data, a heat
plate (Barnstead International model HP130915) 0.5
Harmonic excitation (21 Hz)
was used to reproduce the measured environment. Bridge data
One side of the TEG is directly exposed to the 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
hot plate, while a passive heatsink was attached
Time (s)
to the other side of the thermoelectric module.
It was shown that using the passive heatsink pro- Figure 7 Charging profiles using a harmonic excitation
vides a 15–20% increase in energy generation at 1st resonance, and using ambient vibrations collected
from the Omega Bridge.
performance.
Our first experiment was to develop charging
profiles to investigate the feasibility of providing
power using piezoelectric transducers. For the 3.5

experiments, an energy harvesting circuit module 3

from advanced linear devices (ALD) was used to
Capacitor voltage (V)

precondition the voltage response from the har- 2.5 PZT + PZT
TEG only
vesters. The ALD circuit offers features that are
2
amenable to the multi-transducer concept.
Specifically, the ALD circuit accepts input voltages 1.5 Measurement
of ±500 V, providing a controlled output voltage
of 1.8 or 3.6 V. The advantage of this circuit is that 1 Data storage

it can accept voltage from either the piezoelectric

or thermoelectric generators, and the output from
several circuits can be combined to provide a
multi-transducer energy source for systems such
as the WID3. For this reason the ALD circuit
was selected for each of the subsequent energy har-
vesting experiments. In the first experiment, the
PZT energy harvester was excited using harmonic
and bridge-based vibration signals. The charge
responses for each excitation are presented in
Figure 7. While the bridge-based data increased
the charge time compared to the harmonic excita-
tion (from 378 to 2230 s), it is apparent that the
ambient excitation was sufficient to provide
power to operate the WID3 using piezoelectric-
based energy harvesters.
The next stage in our investigation was to
couple the PZT-based energy harvester with the
thermoelectric generator, using this coupled
system to charge the WID3. In this experiment,
two ALD modules were used to precondition the
0.5
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (s)
Figure 8 Charging profile for the hybrid energy
harvester system using PZT and TEG transducers.
voltage response from both PZT and TEG sources.
The output from each ALD module was connected
in series to increase the voltage output. The charge
response of a 0.1F supercapacitor is shown in
Figure 8. The thermal and vibration sources were
each initiated at time t ¼ 0. We observed that the
TEG response was governed by the thermal
response of the heat source, and was effective
until voltages reached 1.18 V. As this was the maxi-
mum output of the thermoelectric, the PZT was
used to provide the remaining voltage necessary
to obtain the desired operating voltage of 3.5 V

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8 Structural Health Monitoring 0(0)
for the WID3. Once voltage levels reached 3.5 V,
energy was released to the sensor node, which pow-
ered on and measured the electrical impedance of
three sensors used to monitor bolt preload. The
sensor node performed a 100-point measurement
on each sensor, computing the maximum imped-
ance, and storing this data to onboard flash
memory. This operation is initiated after 912 s of
charging and required 2 s to perform the prescribed
task. The voltage response during WID3 operation
is shown in the exploded view in the lower right of
Figure 8. The initial voltage drop in this exploded
view is associated with the measurement cycle,
while the second discharge is due to data process-
ing and writing to file operations. Following the
measurement and storage operations, the WID3
continued to perform low level operations from
914 to 915.5 s to further deplete energy from the
onboard capacitor. Once the voltage dropped
below 2.7 V the WID3 automatically removed
power from the microcontroller, preventing com-
ponents of the WID3 from consuming additional
power once the voltage dropped below the levels
needed for stable operation of the microcontroller.
These results indicate that the multi-transducer
system is capable of powering a piece of hardware
that can interrogate the structural health of a
number of different systems.
4 Energy Transmission
One alternative to traditional energy harvest-
ing systems is the use of RF energy transmission to
remotely power the WID3 sensor node. While this
method can be used to harvest ambient RF energy
in urban areas, our focus has been to use directed
RF energy to remotely power the sensor node. In
this paradigm the WID3 is outfit with a tuned
receiving antenna designed to collect a specific
bandwidth of energy that is being transmitted by
a mobile agent used to power and interrogate
sensor nodes mounted on civil infrastructure. In
the first iterations of this research we used com-
mercially available transmitting and receiving
antennas. While we continue to use commercially
available parabolic grid antennas for transmission,
we have begun fabricating custom microstrip patch
antenna arrays in both 2.4 and 5.8 GHz frequency
bands for collecting RF energy. We have found
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that these custom arrays collect approximately
twice the energy of commercially available designs,
given equivalent receiving areas. The individual
patch antenna operates by creating a resonant
cavity between the ground plane and the top
plane of copper, while a dielectric sheet is used to
separate the top and ground planes. The dielectric
material used in our antennas is produced by
Taconic, and is a 1.14 mm thick PTFE woven
glass composite with low electrical loss terms and
minimal moisture absorption. A picture of the cur-
rent 2.4 and 5.8 GHz antenna designs are shown in
Figure 9. The overall area occupied by the individ-
ual patch antenna is relatively small, on the order
of 11.5 cm2 (2.4 GHz) and 2.4 cm2 (5.8 GHz).
However, a microstrip antenna acts as if it were
several times larger when transmitting or receiving
energy. It is this size disparity that leads to the gain
value of the antenna. A good estimate of the gain
for a planar antenna designed to resonate at a par-
ticular frequency is based on a comparison of its
Single microstrip patch antenna
used in the 18 and 36 element
rectenna arrays
Rectification
circuit
32 Element 5.8 GHz
rectenna array
36 Element 2.4 GHz
rectenna array
Figure 9 Receiving antennas designed to capture RF
energy at 2.4 and 5.6 GHz. While smaller, the 5.6 GHz
system provides a comparable amount of energy due to
the higher gain source antenna.
 Farinholt et al. Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transmission 9

effective area to its physical area. For a patch 5 Field Demonstrations

antenna such as the one used in this study, the
effective area is (/2)2, where  is the wavelength The operation of the WID3 sensor node exclu-
of the microwave [18]. For a frequency of sively from power obtained through wireless
2.45 GHz, the wavelength is 12.2 cm, giving an energy transmission was first demonstrated in the
effective area of 37.2 cm2. The ratio of effective laboratory. Following this, a series of field experi-
area to physical area provides an estimate of the ments were developed to further test the system’s
gain. For this design it works out to 3.22, or about performance under field conditions. In August
5.08 dB. For a transmission frequency of 5.8 GHz, 2007 a series of field experiments with the
the wavelength is 5.8 cm, giving an effective area 2.45 GHz system were conducted on the Alamosa
of 6.68 cm2, corresponding to a gain of 2.78 Canyon Bridge in southern New Mexico. The fol-
or 4.44 dB. lowing year, a series of experiments with the
For a single microstrip patch antenna such as 5.8 GHz system were conducted in August 2008.
the one shown in the top left of Figure 9, the power The Alamosa Canyon Bridge has been decom-
efficiency is calculated to be approximately 1.2% missioned by the New Mexico Department of
at 1 m spacing [19]. Such low efficiency is attribu- Transportation and is used as a testbed for SHM
ted to the small size of the individual microstrip systems. The bridge itself is a traditional steel girder
patch antenna, measuring 1.6  1.6 cm2. While construction with a concrete reinforced deck that
the individual antenna has a low associated gain, is approximately 25 cm thick. Experiments were
the performance can be greatly enhanced as large designed to test both the effectiveness of the
arrays of these microstrip patch antennas can be sensor node and the wireless energy transmission
fabricated with relative ease. This array configura- system once integrated within a mobile host.
tion greatly enhances the receiving antenna’s per- The deployed sensor nodes were mounted
formance as the array can harvest much more of along the western rail of the bridge as shown in
the incident wave generated by the source antenna. Figure 10. The nodes were spaced at intervals of
Additionally, the output of each individual micro-
4–5 m, with the microstrip patch antenna array
strip patch can be connected in a variety of ways to
mounted near each of the sensor nodes. Each
select the voltage level harvested from the array.
WID was connected to three instrumented washers
Examples of 36 (2.4 GHz) and 32 (5.8 GHz) ele-
ment microstrip patch antenna arrays are also
shown in Figure 9. Each element in this array is
coupled with its own rectifying circuit, such that
the output of each element is a rectified version
of the microwave transmission. The integration
of the rectifier within the antenna design is com- Rectenna array 1
monly referred to as a ‘rectenna’ [20]. In each of Rectenna array 2
the rectenna designs shown in Figure 9, the patch
antenna are connected in groups of three (2.4 GHz)
and four (5.8 GHz), each in series, with these
Rectenna array 3
groups subsequently connected in parallel to
increase current. In this configuration laboratory
tests have shown that the 36 element antenna array
is capable of charging a 0.1 F capacitor to 3.0 V in
16.2 s when located 1 m from a source antenna
emitting 910 mW of microwave power at
2.44 GHz. For the higher frequency case, the
capacitor was charged to 3.0 V in 29.4 s when
located 1 m from a source antenna emitting Figure 10 Layout of the field test conducted at Alamosa
890 mW at 5.65 GHz. Canyon Bridge, NM, USA.

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10 Structural Health Monitoring 0(0)

that were mounted using g’’ steel bolts replacing PZT sensor
the original bolts used to secure a steel cross
member to the outer girder on the western side of
the bridge. One set of these instrumented washers
are shown in Figure 11 with an exploded view of an
individual washer clamped between the girder and
the steel nut. The preload applied to each bolt was
varied throughout the experiment to test the sensor
node’s ability to identify the state of each instru-
mented washer mounted on the bridge. The sensor
node was programmed to monitor the electrical
impedance of the washer, which is coupled with
the mechanical impedance (and therefore the inter-
nal stress) of the bolted joint.
The following summary corresponds to the
2008 field test of a 5.8 GHz transmission system
(for information on the 2.4 GHz field test see [19]).
In the 2008 test the energy transmission equipment
was mounted on an unmanned, mobile ground
Figure 11 Layout of the field test conducted at Alamosa
vehicle, and the system was powered through a
Canyon Bridge, NM, USA.
series of NiMH and Lithium-ion batteries. These
batteries powered the vehicle, onboard camera,
signal generator, microwave amplifier, commu-
3.5
nication equipment, and onboard computer. A
NovaSource signal generator was tuned to provide Lab test
3
a 5.65 GHz excitation signal, which was fed through
a Stealth microwave amplifier which drove a para- Field test
Capacitor voltage (V)

2.5
bolic grid antenna. The microwave amplifier used in
this series of experiments was a fixed gain amplifier,
2
and therefore a series of RF attenuators were added
to regulate the output power to 1 W. This system
1.5
was operated by the driver of the vehicle, and the
system was turned off once voltage was supplied to
1
the sensor node. This was monitored via a multi-
meter mounted near the supercapacitor. Multiple
0.5
experiments were performed using this system as
the vehicle was driven up to the rectenna where
0
the vehicle was stopped and energy was transmitted 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
to the receiving antenna. Figure 12 presents the Time (s)
charging profile for a 0.1F supercapacitor as the
Figure 12 Voltage profile for a 0.1 F supercapacitor
RF energy was being transmitted. The system was being charged by RF energy at 5.6 GHz. Tests indicate
capable of charging the capacitor to a voltage of the capacitor would accumulate 3.5 V in 53 s, at which
3.5 V in an average time of 54 seconds at a distance point it triggers the WID3, take measurements, and trans-
of 1.2–1.3 m. In this figure the wireless transmission mit data to the mobile host.
was initiated and approximately 54 s later the power
conditioning circuit is triggered, causing the sensor as the microcontroller performs local computations
node to become active and make a measurement of between 57 and 58 s, at which point the sensor
the piezoelectric sensors, as indicated by the sharp node transmits the data to the mobile host as indi-
drop in voltage at 54 s. The voltage then stabilizes cated by the voltage drop from 58 to 61 s.

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 Farinholt et al. Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transmission
6 Conclusions
This study has demonstrated that a multi-
transducer energy harvesting approach can success-
fully power wireless sensor nodes used in SHM
applications. By replicating data measured in the
field, it was found that the WID3 sensor node
could be charged to an acceptable operating voltage
within 15–30 min. While this charge rage would not
be suitable for continuous measurements, it would
provide an operating cycle sufficient for many civil
structures where data would only be need once a
day. The multi-source approach also improves the
robustness of this approach as the system draws
energy from multiple sources, limiting it vulnerabil-
ity to a single environmental source. For applica-
tions with higher energy demands, wireless energy
transmission can be used to supplement traditional
energy harvesting approaches. In this study wireless
energy transmission has been demonstrated to be a
viable means for powering the WID3 sensor node in
applications where the required energy can be sup-
plemented or periodically delivered by a RF energy
source. This approach can serve to augment
embedded energy harvesters for individual sensor
nodes, while also providing an unmanned assess-
ment capability that can bring additional comput-
ing resources into the network. The authors are
currently working to develop a more comprehen-
sive electrical circuit to combine energy from sev-
eral additional energy harvesting approaches, and
will work to integrate the harvesting and transmis-
sion approaches into a single power conditioning
module for the revised wireless sensing node.
Following successful laboratory investigations,
this system will be deployed on a field structure
to evaluate its performance under real-world
operating conditions.
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