PAPERS OF THE E-LAB BACHELORS THESES 20102011

Energy harvesting for train tracking devices

Enrico Hageman, Maarten Bogaerts, Maarten Weyn.
AbstractEnergy Harvesting or Energy Scavenging is the process of capturing small amounts of energy from renewable external sources and storing it for later use. This offers multiple advantages such as the possibility for autonomic devices. Energy Harvesters could be used to provide power for low-energy electronics such as wireless sensor networks. They could be used to replace batteries or to enhance the durability of a primary energy source. This paper discusses different energy harvesting techniques possible on trains to provide power for train tracking devices. Index Termsenergy harvesting, energy scavenging, train tracking.

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1 I NTRODUCTION

VERY year railroad transport companies around the world lose money on missing cargowaggons. Most of the times this is because they were send for repairs or maintenance and subsequently get lost in the paperwork. To address this problem a tracker device is planted on each cargowaggon to retrieve its location. This device transmits its location using a battery thus limiting the time it can be traced. The main drawback of these devices is the need to replace the battery after they become depleted. This can be a very expensive task. To overcome this problem energy harvesting could be used to provide energy to the device. When an energy harvesting technique is used, alone or in combination with a battery, the lifespan of sensors can be extended many years or even be limited to the electronic components themselves. This way the cargowaggons could be tracked the entire time without having to replace batteries.

(a) The microWindbelt

(b) Technical information

Fig. 1. Prototype of the microwindbelt into electricity. Again, this way power could be supplied whether the train is moving or standing still. Some examples of wind energy harvesters are wind turbines. They convert the kinetic energy into mechanical energy by rotating the shaft thus rotating a generator connected to this shaft. The generator will then convert the mechanical energy into electrical energy[2]. Downscaling this process for low-power applications cant be done efciently thus there arent any commercial products capable of achieving this. This led the research to a new concept, the worlds rst non-turbine harvesting technology, the Windbelt generator invented by Shawn Frayne shown in Fig. 1. The concept of a windbelt is a taut membrane with magnets attached to it. These magnets are positioned between two or more metal coils. The kinetic energy from the wind is used to vibrate the membrane so the magnets oscillate between the coils, generating electricity, which is then ran through a power conditioning unit. It uses aeroelastic utter and vibration rather than a spinning turbine to make microwind harvesting possible. Shawn Fraynes research[3] claims that the windbelt works at 10x the efciency of turbine-based approaches thus making this the most efcient way to harvest energy from wind on trains. 1.1.3 Thermal energy Thermal energy harvesting is made possible by applying the seebeck effect, which states that a temperature difference between two metals produces an electric potential, which in turn drives an electric current in a closed circuit. Thermal energy harvesters need a relative high temperature difference

1.1

Main goal

The main goal of this thesis is to research different energy harvesting techniques to see whether it is possible to power up a tracking device used to locate trains. This paper tries to give some answers to the question: What energy harvesting techniques can be used efciently to provide sufcient energy to train tracking devices?. 1.1.1 Solar energy One of the most obvious ways to harvest energy is by using a solar panel to convert the radiant energy from the sun into electricity. This way power could be supplied whether the train is moving or standing still. There are several circuits that already make this possible[1]. Since the goal is to harvest energy on trains this wouldnt be an efcient method. Trains, especially cargo trains, produce a lot of dust which could block the panel so no sun comes through. This would mean that the panel needs cleaning every once in a while which makes the harvesting of energy redundant. 1.1.2 Wind energy Another obvious way to harvest energy is to make use of wind generators to convert the kinetic energy from the wind
Enrico Hageman and Maarten Bogaerts are with the University College of Antwerp, dept. IWTElectronics-ICT, Paardenmarkt 92, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

PAPERS OF THE E-LAB BACHELORS THESES 20102011

to produce a small amount of power. This is possible near the engine of a train but since we want a tracking device on every cargowaggon this kind of energy harvesting isnt efcient enough for our purpose. 1.1.4 Vibration energy

to the variation in vibration. The result of a test on a cargo train is shown in Fig. 3. The results of this test showed an average of 10mW produced over one hour. Other tests showed an average of 12-15mW on express trains and 30-50mW on HST trains over one hour.

Vibration energy harvesting is the process by which vibrations are used to generate electrical energy. Trains in motion produce unwanted vibrations[4] because of the rails and the spinning of the motor. The level of vibration depends mainly on the speed of the train, the mass and the smoothness of the rails. Tests have proven that most of the generated vibration frequencies are in the range between 20-500Hz. These unwanted vibrations can be used as a way to generate energy which in turn can power electronic devices. To harvest these vibrations there are 2 main possibilities, piezoelectric and electromagnetic energy harvesting. Piezoelectric Piezoelectric energy harvesting is the process by which piezoelectric materials are strained or deformed to produce an electrical charge. Piezoelectric energy harvesters need to be placed on a vibrating surface. For a train the best position is the bogey since the vibrations are not absorbed there. To maximize the bending of the material a cantilever setup shown in Fig. 2(a).[5] could be used where one end of the piezoelectric material is mounted and a weight is placed on the other end. When a train starts to move, the generated vibrations will cause the mass to oscillate thus bending the piezoelectric material. This bending generates electrical charges that can be stored for later use. There are different types of piezoelectric material that can be used for energy harvesting. Comparative studies show that PZT produces the most power over a wide range of frequencies [6]

Fig. 3. Cargo train test result

1.1.5

Radio-frequency energy

Radio frequency harvesting is a term that describes the capturing and converting of electromagnetic waves into usable energy. These waves can originate from various sources ranging from indoor Wi-Fi signals to broadcasted radio signals. Several systems are already available to realize this. [8] Since trains travel from place to place the amount of RF-energy surrounding it cannot be predicted. Its possible that a train starts in a station where there is a lot of RF-energy that can be harvested but when it leaves, the amount of RF-energy drops to a very low level. This is especially the case on cargo trains that travel long distances through places where there is almost no infrastructure. As RF-waves propagate through the air the wave energy also dissipates with distance from source, making this less efcient for long distances. Because of these reasons RF-energy harvesting systems cannot be relied upon for powering electronic devices on trains.

C ONCLUSION

(a) Cantilever setup Fig. 2. Vibration energy harvesters

(b) PMG rail

Electromagnetic An electromagnetic energy harvester produces energy by moving a permanent magnet through a coil which, in accordance to Faradays law, induces a voltage in the coil. These harvesters consist out of a magnet connected to a spring inside a static coil. When mounted on a moving train the produced vibrations cause the magnet to oscillate in that coil. This way energy stored in the movement of the mass-spring system, caused by the vibration of the train, is converted into electrical energy. An example of such a harvester is the PMG rail from Perpetuum shown in Fig. 2(b). [7] This device is specially made to convert train vibrations into electrical energy. Various tests have been performed to determine how much power this device can produce. The power is not generated evenly but in spikes due

This paper has evaluated different techniques to harvest energy on trains. Those techniques cover the use of solar energy, wind energy, thermal energy, vibration energy and radiofrequency energy. Research has narrowed the most efcient techniques down to wind energy and vibration energy. When using wind energy the harvesting can be done while the train is moving or standing still. Research has proven that the windbelt, invented by Shawn Frayne, is the most efcient way to harvest energy from wind on trains. When using vibration energy the harvesting can only be done while the train is moving. There are 2 main categories of vibration energy harvesters: Piezoelectric and electromagnetic. Because the vibrations produced by a train are choppy, the electromagnetic method is recommended. A commercial solution would be the PMG rail from Perpetuum which is specially designed to convert train vibrations into electrical energy.

R EFERENCES
[1] I. Cesare Alippi Fellow and C. Galperti, An Adaptive System for Optimal Solar Energy Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Network Nodes, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMSI: REGULAR PAPERS, vol. 55, pp. 17421750, 2008. [2] S. Bharathi, G. Balaji, and M. Manoj Kumar, A Method for Generating Electricity by Fast Moving Vehicles. [3] H. wind energy, Introducing the microWindbeltTM, 2008.

PAPERS OF THE E-LAB BACHELORS THESES 20102011

[4] R. Narayanamoorthy, V. K. Goel, and V. H. Saran, VIBRATION MEASUREMENT- A TOOL FOR EVALUATING ACTIVITY COMFORT IN TRAINS. [5] S. M. I. Shahab Mehraeen, S. S. M. I. Jagannathan, and A. C. S. M. I. Keith, Energy Harvesting From Vibration With Alternate Scavenging Circuitry and Tapered Cantilever Beam, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, vol. 57, pp. 820830, 2010. [6] H. SODANO, D. INMAN, and G. PARK, Comparison of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Devices for Recharging Batteries, JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT MATERIAL SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES, vol. 16, pp. 799807, 2005. [7] Perpetuum, Vibration energy harvesting. [8] L. W. S. M. I. Richard, B. Chisum, H. Jazo, and M. Fralick, Development of an Electro-Magnetic Transducer for Energy Harvesting of Kinetic Energy and its Applicability to a MEMS-scale Device, Nanopower Forum, 2008.

Enrico Hageman received his B.Sc. in Applied Engineering: electronics-ict with a Minor in communication French and English in 2011 at the Artesis University College of Antwerp. In 2011 he will start his M.Sc. in Applied Engineering: electronics-ict at the Artesis University College of Antwerp.

Maarten Bogaerts received his B.Sc. in Applied Engineering: electronics-ict with a Minor in communication French and English in 2011 at the Artesis University College of Antwerp. In 2011 he will start his M.Sc. in Applied Engineering: electronics-ict at the Artesis University College of Antwerp.