Self-powered structural health monitoring with nonlinear energy harvesting system

Abstract

The present paper describes the application of the fully self-powered structural health monitoring (SHM). Based on the nonlinear process of microgenerators that directly convert ambient mechanical energy into electrical energy, using the synchronized switch harvesting (SSH) method developed in our laboratory, the nonwired SHM system is equipped. The system is separated into two parts. One is an autonomous wireless transmitter (AWT), its mass is 28.9 g, and it generates a radio frequency (RF) signal and a Lamb waveform as a damage index signal. Another part is these receivers, called autonomous wireless receiver (AWR), and its weight is of 67.6 g. A preliminary design of the device using shelf electronics and surface mounted piezoelectric patches is presented. The energy balance shows that more than enough energy to operate these processes can be obtained within 10 s (when around 50 Hz and more than 2 MPa of the stress level). Some different damage index measurements of SHM are finally discussed.

Key words： energy harvesting; piezoelectric generators; electromechanical conversion; self-powered devices; structural health monitoring (SHM); wireless