Author(s): Talal Salem; Nizar Lajnef; Pengcheng Jiao

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Energy harvesting; Wireless sensor; Structural health monitoring; Vibrations

Abstract: W ireless sensors and sensor networks have been widely used recently to monitor structures. In general, the longevity, and hence the efficacy, of these sensors are severely lim ited by their stored power. In addition, systems that are deployed to monitor extreme events, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or impacts, will most probably m iss the event of interest either due to power blackouts or due to the inefficient approach of data collection. The typical continuous sampling and recording of structure responses is impractical when targeting rare extreme events. This paper addresses these two shortcom ings. First, the ability to convert abundant ambient energy into electric power would elim inate the problem of drained electrical supply, and would allow indefinite monitoring thus elim inating the risk of power blackouts. This paper focuses on vibration in civil engineering structures as a source of ambient energy. Earthquake, wind and traffic loads are used as realistic sources of vibrations. In addition, novel data storage and analysis approaches are discussed. These methods allow to reduce the needed storage and computational requirements by more than 1000% for rare events monitoring. Thus, extending the longevity and efficacy of any monitoring system. Keyword: Energy harvesting; wireless sensor; structural health monitoring; vibrations.

DOI:

Year: 2020