Energy self-contained freight train monitoring system with cooperative wind and vibration energy harvesting

Liyi Ma, Shilei Xu, Zhipeng Wang, Limin Jia, Yong Qin, Xiuhan Li, Hao Tang, Yongbin Wang, Kebei Chen and Shukai Chen

Energy, 2025, vol. 333, issue C

Abstract: The dynamic nature of freight train formations and the lack of onboard power infrastructure pose significant challenges for condition monitoring. Deploying sensors in energy-scarce locations is impractical, limiting networked monitoring capabilities. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop methods for harnessing ambient energy during operation, thereby enabling an energy self-contained monitoring system. This paper proposed a cooperative energy harvester system that captures both wind and vibration energy to power autonomous condition monitoring modules. The hybrid configuration employs a wind harvester and a vibration converter to transform mechanical energy from train motion and track-induced oscillations into electrical power. Experimental evaluation yields peak outputs of 40.87 mW at an airflow velocity of 10 m/s and 26.21 mW at a vibration frequency of 20 Hz with a 5 mm amplitude. Under continuous operation, the storage unit reaches full charge in 20 h via wind harvesting and in 45 h via vibration harvesting under a wind speed of 10 m/s and a vibration frequency of 20 Hz with an amplitude of 5 mm, while simultaneously sustaining the sensing module. The results indicate that the proposed system can harness multiple ambient energy sources to deliver stable and continuous power under variable conditions, making it a promising solution for renewable energy-powered freight train monitoring applications.

Keywords: Wind and vibration energy harvester; Energy self-contained systems; Electromagnetic generator; Condition monitoring; Integrated design; Freight railroads (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225030609
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:333:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225030609

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137418

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().