Energy harvesting from rail track for transportation safety and monitoring.

Details

• Creators:
  Lin, Teng ; Wang, John ; Zuo, Lei
• Corporate Creators:
  Stony Brook University
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Electromagnetic devices
  • Rectifiers
  • Vibration
  • Railroad tracks
  • Electrical systems
  • Energy conversion
  • Power output
  • Railroad safety
  • Railroads
  • Deflection
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  49111-31-21
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  University Transportation Research Center
• Abstract:
  An efficient electromagnetic energy harvester featured with mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) is designed to recover ; energy from the vibration-like railroad track deflections induced by passing trains. Comparing to typical existing ; vibration energy harvester technologies can only harvest sub-watts or milliwatts power applications, the proposed ; harvester is designed to power major track-side accessories and possibly make railroad independent from national grid. ; Trackside electrical infrastructures for safety and monitoring typically require a power supply of 10-100 Watts, such as ; warning signals, switches, and health monitoring systems. To achieve such a goal we implement the MMR, a patented ; motion conversion mechanism which transforms pulse-like bidirectional linear vibration into unidirectional rotational ; motion at a high efficiency. The single-shaft MMR design further improved our previously developed motion ; mechanism, increased energy harvester efficiency and expanded power harvesting potential. Major advantages of ; implementing MMR include bidirectional to unidirectional motion conversion and flywheel speed regulation. The ; proposed new design improved reliability, efficiency, and provided steadier power output. Bench test of the harvester ; prototype illustrate the advantages of the MMR based harvester, including up to 71% mechanical efficiency and 50W ; power output.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27121/dot_27121_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.39 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4c5116ab0245773786df851d04374d3071321972e1003882228fc57e1e9c1fa460161a48c6cc06701da754cc060a4ea1706695962d8a44319be4438a90e9b47f