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Vibration energy harvesting system for railroad safety based on running

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Article in Smart Materials and Structures · November 2014

DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/23/12/125046

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 Smart Materials and Structures

Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 (14pp) doi:10.1088/0964-1726/23/12/125046

Vibration energy harvesting system for

railroad safety based on running vehicles
Yuan Tianchen, Yang Jian, Song Ruigang and Liu Xiaowei
School of Urban Railway Transportation, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620,
People’s Republic of China

E-mail: yang2580@sues.edu.cn

Received 27 May 2014, revised 27 September 2014

Accepted for publication 7 October 2014
Published 12 November 2014

Abstract
This research is focused on energy harvesting from track vibration in order to provide power for
the wireless sensors which monitor railroad health. Considering that track vibration has vibration
energy, a new method is proposed in the paper to harvest energy based on the piezoelectric
effect. The piezoelectric generator called drum transducer is the key part for track vibration
energy harvesting. The model of drum transducer is established and the simulation results show
that it can generate 100 mW in real track situation. In addition, an experiment rig is developed
and its vibration model is also established. The simulation and experiment results show that peak
open-circuit voltage of piezoelectric generator is about 50–70 V at the full load of the train. The
whole track vibration energy harvesting system is analytically modeled, numerically simulated,
and experimentally realized to demonstrate the feasibility and the reliability of the theoretical
model. This paper is the theoretical basis of harvesting, recovering and recycling of the track
vibration energy for track safety.
Keywords: track vibration, vibration energy harvesting, piezoelectric effect, drum transducer

(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction
Railway transportation plays an important role in the econ-
omy and everyday life. The rail-side equipments in some
remote areas, such as signal lights, signal beacons and wire-
less communication systems, are constrained by lack of
power supply. It is important to develop a reliable and low-
cost power source for these rail-side equipments. If there is a
kind of energy harvesting device that can convert energy from
the surroundings (such as solar energy, heat energy, wind
energy, vibration energy, etc) into electrical energy, which
can completely or partly replace the battery to supply power
for wireless sensor network node, it will be able to reduce the
use of battery to prolong the life time of the wireless net-
work node.
Solar energy harvester has a simple structure and is
non-polluting. However, in the inadequate light area or at
night, it can not work effectively [1]. Heat energy harvester
converts temperature-difference energy to electrical energy
with the thermoelectric effect of functional materials, which
has small volume and long service life. However, the
application is restricted in that it needs higher temperature
difference [2]. Wind energy harvester converts energy from
dynamic fluid into electrical energy by using the method of
electromagnetic or piezoelectric effect. Knowles et al [3]
developed a system for fluid wave energy conversion.
When rotating the turbine, structural projections engage
piezoelectric cantilever beams. The performance of the
turbine is greatly reduced rapidly with the decrease of its
size, because of its complicated structure [4]. Hobeck et al
[5] designed an artificial piezoelectric grass for energy
harvesting from turbulence-induced vibration. Every piezo-
electric grass can harvest 1 mW power in high intensity of
turbulence, however, which is not common in nature. In
addition, the distribution of wind energy is not regular, and
natural wind cannot provide reliable power supply [6]. So
the most vexing issues are the sheer variability and
uncertainty of wind and solar power, which are not reliable
or robust in some certain circumstances such as night, rain
or windless.

0964-1726/14/125046+14$33.00 1 © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046
Figure 1. Design plan of the supply power for wireless sensor.
Vibration energy harvester converts vibration energy into
electrical energy from the environment. There are many kinds
of mechanical vibration in environment, such as the vibration
of machine operation, road vibration of passing cars, train
vibration of the running trains, etc. Since the track detection
sensors are usually close to the track, it is convenient to get
energy from the track vibration. When a passing train moves
over the track, the track vibrates strongly. The displacement
of the vibration can drive the energy harvester and supply
power for wireless sensor network system, because some
sensor only need to be activated when the train was nearby
such as the locating system of trains. So it is meaningful to
harvesting energy for track vibration as the assistance power
source for the railroad safety.
There are two ways to harvest the energy from track
vibration: electromagnetic harvesters and piezoelectric har-
vesters. Wang et al [7] and Pourghodrat [8] studied the
electromagnetic harvester devices to harvest the track vibra-
tion energy. The devices are capable of converting the vertical
displacement of track vibration to the rotary motion of gen-
erator through using gear and rack mechanism, and main-
taining the rotation of the generator by roller clutch and
flywheel. These electromagnetic harvester devices are com-
plicated and relatively large. Nelson et al [9] mounted pie-
zoelectric films at the bottom of rail and harvested about
1 mW from the deformation of the rail.
The piezoelectric harvesting device is structurally simple
and small without moving parts. However, the location and
structure of piezoelectric generator have huge influence to the
energy harvesting. Nelson et al [9] harvested energy from the
deformation of the rail and piezoelectric films are located at
the bottom of rail. This method is simple and easy to
implement the piezoelectric ceramics, while it cannot
2
Y Tianchen et al
effectively use the huge track vibration force. Innowattech
[10] designed a piezoelectric generator which was installed
under the rail fastener and it can harvest large energy from the
track vibration. This method needs to drill on the sleeper and
the size of piezoelectric generator is limited. The authors’
preliminary research [11] developed a method in which the
piezoelectric generator was installed under the sleeper, and
the results show that the harvested power in track vibration is
considerable.
The piezoelectric stack of thickness vibration [12] is an
effective method of energy harvesting in strong incentive
environment of large mechanical vibration, but Zhao Hon-
gduo’s [13] research showed that power generation capacity
of piezoelectric stack is not high because of its high stiffness
leading to poor coupling vibration effect. So the piezoelectric
transducer for the track vibration energy harvesting needs a
medium stiffness and high electromechanical conversion
capacity.
In this paper, we propose a new energy harvesting
method for track vibration, and design a type of piezoelectric
generator called drum transducer. Specifically, it is modeled
to demonstrate the feasibility of energy harvesting for track
vibration by this method. An experiment rig is developed to
verify the reliability of theoretical analysis.
2. Description and modeling of the energy harvester
2.1. Design of the energy harvesting system
Many of the railroad accidents occur in remote areas due to
the lack of electrical infrastructure to power automated
warning systems or track health monitoring sensor networks.
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046
Figure 2. Location of piezoelectric generator.
Figure 3. Structure of drum transducer.
Figure 4. Simple structure of drum transducer.
The vibration energy harvesting system can provide electrical
energy to monitor system in remote areas. Figure 1 shows the
design of supplying power for the wireless sensor networks.
The running train causes the vibration of the track and the
piezoelectric generator converts vibration energy into elec-
trical energy. The electrical energy is stored in the capacitance
and is supplied to the wireless sensor.
In the paper, the piezoelectric generator is installed under
sleeper shown in figure 2, which has the same vibration
direction with the track vertical vibration. This method is
simple, and avoids drilling on the sleeper. The transverse
space at the bottom of the sleeper is also bigger, so it is
convenient to install multiple piezoelectric transducers to
increase the harvested energy.
Based on papers [14, 15], authors also designed a kind of
drum transducer to harvest track vibration energy. The detail
is shown in figure 3. The piezoelectric wafer is installed on
the surface of the metal base plate which is supported by the
ring. The silver coating on the surface of piezoelectric cera-
mic is the electrode. If the concentrated force F is on the
center of the drum transducer, the bending deformation
occurs.
3
Y Tianchen et al
2.2. Analytical model of energy harvesting device
The drum transducer was studied by experiment in paper
[14, 15]. The authors develop an analytical model of the
multi-connected drum transducer.
In figure 4, the parameters of the drum transducer are
explained in detail. We only focused on half of the drum
transducer. The parameters are as follow: R is the radius of the
piezoelectric ceramic, Tpe is the thickness of the piezoelectric
ceramic, Tb is the thickness of the base plate, and d is the
inner diameter of the support ring. The maximum deformation
is ΔZpe.
The piezoelectric ceramic can convert its strain into
electricity due to the piezoelectric effect. Piezoelectric effect
can be generally described by the standard piezoelectric
equation (1):
⎧
⎪ S1 (r , t ) = s
E
11 T1 (r , t ) + d 31 E 3 (t ),
⎨ (1)
⎪ T
⎩ D 3 (r , t ) = d 31T1 (r , t ) + ε33 E 3 (t ).
The radial direction is 1, the angular direction is 2, and
the direction perpendicular to the surface is 3. Where S1(r, t)
is the strain function in the piezoelectric ceramic and T1(r, t)
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 5. Coordinate system of base plate.

Figure 6. Strain distribution in piezoelectric ceramic.

is the stress function. E3(t) and D3(r, t) denote the electric

field and the electric displacement in the piezoelectric cera- In equation (4), the w(r, t) is a function of radius r and
mic. d31 is the piezoelectric constant, and εT33 is dielectric time t . r is the distance from the center of plate to the point of
constant and sE11 is elastic compliances constant. deflection. Curvature expressions K(r, t) can be get by the
The equation (1) can be transformed into the second derivative of equations (4) and (5) is the approximate
equation (2): solution for the K(r, t)
d 31 d2w (r , t ) 4 r
D 3 (r , t ) = S1 (r , t ) + ε¯33 E 3 (t ), (2) K (r , t ) ≈ = 2 ΔZ pe (t ) 1 + ln . (5)
s11E dr 2
R R
T
Where ε¯33 = ε33 ( 2
1 − k 31 and ) The distance from piezoelectric ceramic to the neutral
k 31 =
d 31 layer ranges from 0.5Tb to 0.5Tb + Tpe shown in figure 6. The
s11E ε33
T strain is change with the distance.
We use the average value 1/2(Tb + Tpe) to study the strain
ε̄33: the one-dimensional dielectric permittivity distribution function S(r, t) in the piezoelectric ceramic, and it
k31: electromechanical coupling coefficient of piezo- is expressed by following equation. e is the natural constant
electric ceramic.
However, the internal strain distribution in the piezo- Tb + Tpe
S (r , t ) = K (r , t )
electric ceramic is not uniform. ΔZpe is just the maximum 2
deformation, so it is necessary to study strain distribution in ⎧2
order to get relationship between the output of the drum ⎪ ( Tb + Tpe ) ΔZ
pe (t )
transducer and its deformation. The coordinate on the base ⎪ R2
⎪ ⎡ R⎞
plate is established in figure 5. ⎪ ⎛ r⎞
× ⎜ −1 − ln ⎟ r ∈ ⎢ 0, ⎟
The analytical solution exists for a plate structure with ⎪ ⎝ R ⎠ ⎣ e⎠
unclamped edge. In this paper, the calculation follows the =⎨ (6)
⎪2 ( Tb + Tpe ) ΔZ
assumption that there is no shear strain and no stress along the ⎪ pe (t )
thickness direction and the thickness Tb is much small than ⎪ R2
the radius of the plate. The stiffness of piezoelectric ceramic ⎪ ⎛ r⎞ ⎡R ⎤
⎪ × ⎜ 1 + ln ⎟ r ∈ ⎢ , R⎥ .
⎝ ⎠ ⎣e ⎦
is ignored due to its relatively brittle characteristic. The inside ⎩ R
diameter d of the support ring is approximated to the drum
transducer diameters 2R. If the elastic modulus and the We use S(r, t) to instead of S1(r, t) as the strain in the
Poisson’s ratio of base plate material are E and u, we can piezoelectric ceramic. The electric charge Q(t) in electrode
describe the equivalent stiffness Kbase of base plate as fol- can be got by integrating electric displacement D3(r, t) on the
lowing equations based on theory of elastic mechanics for electrode surface σ
clamped circular plate

16πD ETb3
Q (t ) = ∬σ D 3 (r , t )dσ
Kbase = , D = . (3) 2π R
R2 12 1 − μ2 ( ) = ∫0 dθ ∫0 D 3 (r , t ) r d r

In equation (3), constant D is related to the structure

=
(
3πd 31 Tb + Tpe ) ΔZ + πR 2ε¯33 E 3 (t ).
property. Based on the deformation theory of circular plate, pe (t ) (7)
s11E e2
the deflection curve of base plate in the neutral layer is
denoted as following equation (4): We can introduce the equivalent circuit model shown in
ΔZ pe (t ) ⎛ 2 r ⎞⎟ figure 7. The piezoelectric ceramic is equivalent to the current
w (r , t ) = ⎜ R − r 2 + 2r 2 ln . (4)
2 ⎝ ⎠ source Q(t) and its output is current i(t). Cpe is the equivalent
R R
capacitance, Rt is the leakage resistance and RL is the load
resistance. u(t) is the output voltage of piezoelectric ceramics.

4
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 7. Equivalent circuit of piezoelectric ceramics.

Output current i(t) can be expressed as equation (8) by

time derivation of Q(t) Figure 8. Equivalent circuit of drum transducer group.

i (t ) =
( )
3πd 31 Tb + Tpe dΔZ pe (t )
+
πR 2ε¯33 du (t )
, (8)
s11E e2 dt Tpe dt capacitance C′ and leakage resistance R′ of multiple drum
transducers are shown in equations (13) and (14)
where, mp
u (t ) = E 3 (t ) Tpe. (9) C′ = Cpe (13)
ms
The first order differential equation of u(t) can be got as ms
R′t = Rt . (14)
equation (10) according to the laws of the capacitance char- mp
ging and Kirchhoff’s current law
We can establish the circuit model of drum transducer
d u (t ) Tpe
= group shown in figure 8. RL is load resistance. i0(t) is the
dt C p Tpe − πR 2ε¯33 output current. u′(t) is the output voltage of the drum trans-
⎡ 3πd T + T dΔZ (t ) ⎤ ducer group shown in equation (15)
× ⎢ 31 b ( pe pe
−
) Rt R L
u (t ) ⎥ . (10)
⎢ E 2 ⎥ d u ′ (t ) Tpe m s
⎣ s11 e d t R t + R L ⎦ =
dt C′Tpe m s − πR 2ε¯33
Under most circumstance, the piezoelectric generator is ⎡ 3m πd T + T dΔZ ′ (t )
multi-connected to improve the power generation capacity. ×⎢
p 31 b ( pe pe)
Suppose each drum transducer has the same parameters. ⎢ E 2
s11 e n s dt
⎣
(1) Connection in machinery R′t R L ⎤
The way of mechanical connection influences the − u ′ (t ) ⎥ . (15)
R′t + R L ⎦
equivalent stiffness of piezoelectric generator. Assump-
tions: ns stands for the number of drum transducer in The equations of output current i0(t) and the output
mechanical series connection. np stands for the number power P(t) of the drum transducer group are as follows:
of drum transducer in mechanical parallel connection.
The equivalent stiffness of multiple drum transducers u ′ (t )
i 0 (t ) = , P (t ) = u′ (t ) i0 (t ). (16)
Kpe is shown in equation (11). The total deformation RL
ΔZpe′ is shown in equation (12)
We have established a model of drum transducer group
np and got the equations between the deformation and the output
K pe = Kbase (11)
ns voltage. The output current and power also can be got from
the equation (16).
ΔZ ′pe = n s ΔZ pe. (12)

(2) Connection in electricity

3. Simulation in the real rail situation
The way of electrical connection influences the equiva-
lent capacitance and leakage resistance of drum transducer.
3.1. The vibration model of track and piezoelectric generator
Assumptions: ms stands for the number of drum transducer in
electrical series connection. mp stands for the number of drum In order to study the vibration displacement of the piezo-
transducer in electrical parallel connection. The equivalent electric generator, the vibration model of track and

5
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 9. Track-piezoelectric vibration model.

piezoelectric generator are based on vehicle-track coupled and Cf are the stiffness and damping of foundation. i is the
model [16, 17] shown in figure 9. The piezoelectric generator serial number of the sleeper.
is equivalent to a spring Kpe in the red dotted box. The vibration displacement of piezoelectric generator
In this model, the rail is assumed as continuous Ber- Zpe(t) is:
noulli–Euler beam which is discretely supported at rail-slee- Kb
per junctions by three layers of springs and dampers. The Z pe (t ) =
K pe + Kb
[ Z s (t ) − Z b (t ) ] . (17)
three layers respectively represent the elasticity and damping
of the rail pad, the ballast and the subgrade. Zr is the vertical The total deformation of piezoelectric transducer ΔZpe′(t)
displacements of the rail; Mr is the rail mass per unit length; is:
EI is the rail bending stiffness; p(t) is the wheel-rail vertical ΔZ pe′ (t ) = Z pe (t ) − Zs (t ). (18)
forces; The location of rail-supporting point is xi = ils
(I = 1 ∼ 200); The location of the load car is xw = vt. This The detail equations of vehicle and track in this model
model allows the track parameters varying along the rail’s can be found in reference [16]. The equation of the whole
longitudinal direction, such as stiffness changing caused by dynamic system can be written as matrix:
the piezoelectric generator. [M ]{Z }̈ + [C ]{Z }̇ + [K ]{Z} = {Q}, (19)
In this model, Zs(t) and Zb(t) are the displacement of
sleeper and ballast. Ms and Mb are the mass of sleeper and where [M], [C] and [K] are mass, damping and stiffness
ballast. Kp and Cp are the stiffness and damping of rail fas- matrices; {Q} is the load vector; {Z} is the displacement
tener. Kb and Cb are the stiffness and damping of ballast. Kw vector. The more detail information and theoretical base for
and Cw are the shear stiffness and shear damping of ballast; Kf vehicle-track vibration have been explained in the papers
[16–18].

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Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Table 1. Parameters of drum transducer.

Notation Parameter Unit Value

R Radius of piezoelectric mm 20
ceramics
Eb Elastic modulus of base plate N m−2 1.15 × 1011
ub Poisson's ratio of base plate / 0.3
Tb Thickness of base plate mm 0.2
Figure 10. Track vibration energy harvesting.
Tpe Thickness of piezoelectric mm 0.2
ceramics
3.2. Simulation results d31 Piezoelectric constant m V−1 260 × 10−12
εT33 Dielectric constant F m−1 3.363 × 10−8
The simulation of track vibration energy harvesting is carried sE11 Elastic compliances constant m2 N−1 18.2 × 10−12
out. In the model, the rail length l is 120 m with 200 sleepers. ns Number of mechanical series / 1
The track parameters can be found in the paper [16]. The connection
drum transducer is supposed to be set in middle of the track np Number of mechanical paral- / 160
(60 m, sleeper serial number I = 100) which is shown in lel connection
figure 10. ms Number of electrical series / 2
connection
The vehicle parameters are based on the metro train with
mp Number of electrical parallel / 160
6 cars in Shanghai, China, and the speed is set in connection
ν = 60 km h−1. The passenger capacity of the train is set in full
load. The material of base plate is brass and piezoelectric
ceramic is PZT-4 type. The parameters are shown in table 1.
We use Newmarket-β method to simulate vibration
model of track-piezoelectric generator and Runge–Kutta
method to simulate model of drum transducer in Matlab®.
The vibration displacement of rail, sleeper and ballast are
shown in figure 11.
The vibration displacement of track has the character-
istics of pulse. Each car has 4 wheels, and 6-car train has 24
wheels. So there are 24 displacement peaks in figure 11. The
displacements of the track are smaller than the others by car 1
and car 6 which do not have traction motor and gear box. The
Figure 11. Vibration responses of track in time domain.
vibration responses of piezoelectric generator are shown in
figure 12.
The outputs of piezoelectric generator are shown in In equation (20), P(t) is the output power; T is the total
figure 13 and the load resistance RL is selected as 4 kΩ. time that 6-car train passes through the specific track
Obviously, outputs of piezoelectric generator also have the (l = 120 m); Eh is the harvested energy, and the value can be
characteristics of pulse. calculated through numerical integration method. The har-
The capacity of piezoelectric generator is influenced by vested energy is also a constant value at various speeds. The
different load resistance RL and output of piezoelectric gen- increasing speed of train leads to the increasing vibration
erator changes with time, so the root mean square (rms) is frequency of piezoelectric generator, which makes the
used to evaluate the capacity of piezoelectric generator. matching value of optimal resistance decreases.
Figure 14 shows the output of piezoelectric generator in dif-
ferent load resistance. The optimal load resistance is 3.9 kΩ.
The output of piezoelectric generator is affected by the
vibration frequency which is related to the train speed. It is 4. Experiment rig for track vibration
shown in figure 15 that the higher power can be received with
the higher vibration frequency caused by the high train speed. 4.1. Design of experiment rig
Because the output of piezoelectric generator is related to the
deformation of piezoelectric generator and the number of Experiment rig of track vibration energy harvesting is
piezoelectric generator in series, the output voltage is a con- designed as figure 16. This rig includes three major parts: load
stant value at various speeds. The harvested energy can be got car, track and base. The load car has simple structure with a
by equation (20) wheel and a suspension device. Through increasing or redu-
cing load plate on the load car, the experiment rig can
T simulate three train-running conditions: light load (AW1), full
Eh = ∫0 P (t )dt . (20)
load (AW2) and overload (AW3). The load car is driven
along the longitudinal of track by the variable frequency
motor, which can simulate the running of train.

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Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 12. Vibration responses of piezoelectric generator in time domain.

Figure 13. Output of piezoelectric generator in time domain.

Figure 14. Output (rms) of piezoelectric generator in various resistances.

The track subsystem in the experiment rig consists of rail,

fasteners, sleeper and ballast. Because the two rails have very
similar condition, the design only focuses on the one of the
rail to reduce the size of experiment rig. The ballast is
designed as a series of steel boxes instead of stone to make
the experiment rig more stable. The rubber pad in design is to
simulate the stiffness of track and ballast. The mass and
stiffness in the experiment rig is 1/10 to the real track and
vehicle.

4.2. Analytical model of experiment rig

The structure of the experiment rig is modeled in figure 17.

Figure 15. Output of the piezoelectric transducer in various speeds. The shear stiffness and shear damping are ignored in this

8
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 16. Experiment rig of track vertical vibration energy harvesting.

Figure 17. Coupled vibration model of experiment rig.

model. The drum transducer can be equivalent to the spring equations in the time domain:
which is located between the sleeper and ballast.
In this model, the red dotted box stands for the piezo- Mct Z cẗ + Kt Z ct − Kt Z wt = Mct g (21a)
electric generator, and Kpe is the equivalent stiffness of the
̈ + Kt Z wt − Kt Z ct = Mwt g − p .
Mwt Z wt (21b)
drum transducer. Zpe is the displacement of drum transducer.
Zct and Zwt are displacement of the load car and wheel. Zrt, Zst
and Zbt are displacement of rail, sleeper and ballast. xw is the
4.3. Experiment results
location of the load car. v is the speed of the load car. p(t)
stands for wheel/rail interaction force. i is the serial number of We develop a piezoelectric generator group with 16 drum
the rail-supporting point. The parameters of experiment rig transducers in parallel connection because the experiment rig
are shown in table 2. is 1/10 to the real track and vehicle. So the number of drum
The equations of motion of the load car subsystem can be transducers is 1/10 to the simulation under real track condi-
easily derived based on the D’Alembert’s principle, which tion. The piezoelectric ceramic PZT-4 is pasted on both sur-
can be described in the form of second-order differential face of the brass base plate in series connection. The

9
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 18. Drum transducer group. Figure 19. Installation location of the generator.

Table 2. Parameters of experiment rig.

Notation Parameters Unit Value

Mct Loaded car body mass kg 350–750
Kt Stiffness coefficient of pri- N m−1 2 × 105
mary suspension
Mwt Wheel mass kg 65
mrt Rail mass per unit length kg m−1 22.3
Et Elastic modulus of rail N m−2 2.059 × 1011
It Rail second moment of area m4 3.39 × 10−6
lt Length of the rail m 6
Kpt Fastener stiffness N m−1 1 × 107
Cpt Fastener damping N s m−1 7.5 × 103
Mst Sleeper mass kg 12
Kpt Ballast stiffness N m−1 2 × 107
Cpt Ballast damping N s m−1 7.5 × 103 Figure 20. Speed and distance of loaded car.
Mbt Ballast mass kg 60
Kft Subgrade stiffness N m−1 4 × 107
Cft Subgrade damping N s m−1 7.5 × 103 condition, 3 pieces of load plates for AW2 condition and no
lst Sleeper spacing m 0.6 load plate for AW1 condition. Each load plate weighs 60 kg.
The experiment data are recorded by HIOKIR oscillographic
recorder and the sampling period is 0.02 s. Because of the low
parameters of single drum are the same as table 1. The whole running speed of the load car in the experiment rig, the
drum transducer group is a 250 mm × 250 mm square shown vibration frequency of the drum transducer is very low. It
in figure 17. The transducer group is set under the sleeper, leads to the high matching value of the load resistance, so we
which is shown in figure 19. choose 1 MΩ, 5 MΩ, 9 MΩ, and open circuit in the experi-
The running speed of the load car v in experiment rig is ment. The results of simulations and experiments are shown
given in figure 20, including acceleration, constant speed and in figures 23 to 25.
deceleration. The constant speed is 0.15 m s−1 (about The peak voltage in open condition is 50–70 V. It
0.5 km h−1) and the distance of actual running is 4.4 m. decreases rapidly with the load resistance value’s decreasing.
We can simulate the vibration displacement and velocity The peak of the output voltage in low load resistance value
of the drum transducer group shown in figures 21 and 22. appears earlier than the peak in high load resistance value.
AW1, AW2 and AW3 stand for the light load, full load and The zero point of output voltage also appears earlier in low
overload conditions of Shanghai metro. resistance value.
The displacement and velocity of the drum transducer From figures 16 to 18, the simulation results coincide
group’s vibration increase with the load’s increase. If the with the experiment results and we can get the following
wheel runs directly above the drum transducer, the maximum conclusions.
displacement ranges from 0.55 to 0.75 mm. The maximum
vibration velocity ranges from 0.08 to 0.1 mm s−1. (1) The waveform of output voltage is similar to vibration
We select four typical electrical loads RL: open, 9 MΩ, displacement of drum transducer group under high load
5 MΩ and 1 MΩ. We use 5 pieces of load plates for AW3 resistance value.

10
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046
Figure 21. Vibration displacement.
Figure 22. Vibration velocity.
(2) The waveform of output voltage is similar to vibration
velocity of drum transducer group under low load
resistance value.
(3) The peak of the output voltage in low load resistance
value appears earlier than the peak in high load
resistance value.
According to equation (15), the differential equation of
the output voltage is the function of vibration velocity, so the
waveform of output voltage should be similar to vibration
velocity. If the value of load resistance is high, the electric
charge Q(t) in the electrode is not capable of forming the
effective current through the load resistance. The electric
charge will accumulate in the electrode, thus it creates an
‘integral’ effect. So waveform of output voltage is similar to
vibration displacement.
The outputs of the drum transducer group are alternating
current. The waveform of the output voltage is more similar
to the sine wave with the load resistance value’s decrease.
The results of rms voltage in experiment and simulation are
shown in figure 26.
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Y Tianchen et al
The rms voltage of drum transducer group increases with
the load resistance value’s increase, so output power may be a
peak under a special load resistance value shown in figure 27.
In figure 20, simulation and experiment results show that
the maximum power output is 0.1 mW with RL = 4 MΩ in
AW3 condition. So the 4 MΩ is the optimal value of load
resistance.
We can compare the results of simulation and experiment
in table 3 to verify the theoretical model and simulation of
experiment system. The load resistance is set in 4 MΩ.
From the above, we can draw the conclusion that the
theoretical models are correct and the simulations of experi-
ment system are effective. However, the results of experiment
and simulation show that the drum transducer group can
harvest rms power of 0.1 mW in over load condition at
0.5 km h−1, whose energy source is relatively low. The main
reasons are:
(1) The speed of load car is 0.5 km h−1, which is much
lower than the train’s regular running speed.
(60 km h−1).
(2) There is only one wheel in the experiment rig.
(3) The exciting force of sleeper is 1/10 to the real
condition, which leads to the lower output.
4.4. Analysis of experiments and simulations in real track
situation
In order to verify the reliability of the simulation in real track
condition, we can convert the results of experiment in rig as
the virtual experiment in real track condition. There is a kind
of analytic relationship between experiments in rig and
simulation in real track condition. So we can amplify the
results of experiment in rig to analogize the real track con-
dition. The comparison parameters of simulation and
experiment are in table 4.
In table 4, α1 is the ratio of strain in the piezoelectric
ceramic. α2 is the ratio of number of drum transducer in series
connection. α3 is the ratio of number of drum transducer in
parallel connection. α4 is the ratio of running speed of the car.
α5 is the equivalent number of the wheel. So the conversion
factor αV, αP and αE can be got based on the conclusion of
figure 15
α V = α1α2 (22)
α P = α1α2 α 3 α 4 (23)
α E = α1α 3 α 5, (24)
where αV, αP and αE are the conversion factor of output
voltage (rms), output power (rms) and harvested energy. The
results of simulation (part 3.2) and virtual experiment are in
table 5.
Although the waveforms of the simulation for real track
condition and experiment in lab are not similar, the conver-
sion results are close to the simulation. The experiment rig
can reflect the basic trend of track vibration energy harvest-
ing, and the reliability of the theoretical model can be
confirmed.
Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 23. Output voltage under AW1 in various load resistance.

Figure 24. Output voltage under AW2 in various load resistance.

Figure 25. Output voltage under AW3 in various load resistance.

Figure 26. Output voltage (rms) under various working condition.

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Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046 Y Tianchen et al

Figure 27. Output power (rms) under various working condition.

Table 3. Comparison results of simulation and experiment.

Results Unit Car load Experiment Simulation Error

AW1 12.84 13.54 5.45%
rms output voltage V AW2 15.55 16.84 8.29%
AW3 17.29 18.30 5.84%
AW1 0.055 0.056 1.82%
rms output power mW AW2 0.081 0.085 4.98%
AW3 0.102 0.100 1.96%
AW1 1.33 1.39 4.51%
Harvested energy mJ AW2 2.08 2.16 5.19%
AW3 2.31 2.43 7.18%

Table 4. Comparison parameters of simulation and experiment.

Notation Parameters Unit Simulation Experiment Ratio

ΔZpe Max. deformation of drum transducers mm 0.6 ∼ 0.7 0.68 α1 ≈ 1
ms Series quantity of drum transducer / 2 2 α2 = 1
mp Parallel quantity of drum transducer / 160 16 α3 = 10
ν Running speed of car km h−1 60 0.5 α4 = 120
/ Equivalent quantity of the wheel / 24 1 α5 = 24

Table 5. Comparison results of simulation and experiment in real track condition.

Results Unit Experiment Conversion factor Virtual experiment Simulation Error

Output voltage (rms) V 15.6 αV = 1 15.6 16.5 9.62%
Output power (rms) W 8.1 × 10−5 αP = 1200 0.096 0.1 4.17%
Harvested energy J 2.08 × 10−3 αE = 240 0.49 0.38 24.32%

5. Conclusions One is the analytical model of drum transducer and the

The simulations and experiments show that the more defor-
mation of drum transducer occurs, the more energy can be
generated. Piezoelectric generator should be installed in
heavy haul railway to harvest more energy. The more vibra-
tion velocity of piezoelectric transducer occurs, the more
power can be generated. It is very effective to harvest more
power when the piezoelectric generator is installed in the high
speed section of track, and it also can reduce the optimal load
resistance.
This paper studied the principles of energy harvesting
for track vertical vibration through establishing two models.
other is vibration model of track and piezoelectric. The
relationship between the output electricity and deformation
for drum transducer is studied by the first model. Vibration
displacement response of the drum transducer is obtained
through the second model. We design the experiment rig of
track vibration energy harvesting and verify correctness of
theory model and effectiveness of using the drum trans-
ducer to harvest the energy from track vibration. The
achievement in this paper is the theoretical basis of harvest,
recovery and recycle of the track vibration energy for the
track safety.

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Smart Mater. Struct. 23 (2014) 125046
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Innovation Program of
Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (14ZZ158), the
Top Discipline Plan for Mechanical Engineering of Shanghai
Municipal Education Commission, and The Twelfth Five-
Year Program of Connotation Construction Project for
Shanghai Local Universities. Also the authors would like to
express gratitude to Chen Wenjie for the help of English.
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