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On the target frequency for harvesting energy from track vibrations due to passing trains

On the target frequency for harvesting energy from track vibrations due to passing trains
On the target frequency for harvesting energy from track vibrations due to passing trains

There is an increasing desire to monitor the structural integrity of railway tracks and the supporting ballast and subgrade. Track vibration has been proposed as a potential energy source to power wireless sensors for this purpose. Vibration-based energy harvesting devices generally exploit resonance, and hence need to be tuned to a particular target frequency. Thus, to harvest energy from the vibrations of a passing train, the spectral content of the track vibration needs to be known. This paper describes a fundamental investigation into the factors that govern this spectral content. A simple model of the train and the track, together with data from five trains passing at four different sites are used in this investigation. It is shown that the deflection under an individual wheel effectively acts as a bandpass filter, restricting the acceleration spectrum of sleeper vibration to low frequencies. The train geometry has an important effect on which specific trainload frequency has the largest response amplitude. For the trains studied, it was found that the 7th trainload frequency had the highest amplitude in four out of the five cases. The physical reasons as to why this trainload frequency is the largest are discussed.

Energy harvesting, Track vibration, Train-induced vibration, Trainload frequency
0888-3270
212-223
Cleante, V.G.
91f70d37-f03d-46d0-a961-f8eb6c91e75e
Brennan, M.J.
87c7bca3-a9e5-46aa-9153-34c712355a13
Gatti, G.
04aa0da6-dff8-4094-a265-57c7253e74dd
Thompson, D.J.
bca37fd3-d692-4779-b663-5916b01edae5
Cleante, V.G.
91f70d37-f03d-46d0-a961-f8eb6c91e75e
Brennan, M.J.
87c7bca3-a9e5-46aa-9153-34c712355a13
Gatti, G.
04aa0da6-dff8-4094-a265-57c7253e74dd
Thompson, D.J.
bca37fd3-d692-4779-b663-5916b01edae5

Cleante, V.G., Brennan, M.J., Gatti, G. and Thompson, D.J. (2019) On the target frequency for harvesting energy from track vibrations due to passing trains. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 114, 212-223. (doi:10.1016/j.ymssp.2018.05.003).

Record type: Article

Abstract

There is an increasing desire to monitor the structural integrity of railway tracks and the supporting ballast and subgrade. Track vibration has been proposed as a potential energy source to power wireless sensors for this purpose. Vibration-based energy harvesting devices generally exploit resonance, and hence need to be tuned to a particular target frequency. Thus, to harvest energy from the vibrations of a passing train, the spectral content of the track vibration needs to be known. This paper describes a fundamental investigation into the factors that govern this spectral content. A simple model of the train and the track, together with data from five trains passing at four different sites are used in this investigation. It is shown that the deflection under an individual wheel effectively acts as a bandpass filter, restricting the acceleration spectrum of sleeper vibration to low frequencies. The train geometry has an important effect on which specific trainload frequency has the largest response amplitude. For the trains studied, it was found that the 7th trainload frequency had the highest amplitude in four out of the five cases. The physical reasons as to why this trainload frequency is the largest are discussed.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 1 May 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 May 2018
Published date: 1 January 2019
Keywords: Energy harvesting, Track vibration, Train-induced vibration, Trainload frequency

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 424869
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/424869
ISSN: 0888-3270
PURE UUID: ce037e64-449e-455f-bd0c-920ff1c11c56
ORCID for D.J. Thompson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7964-5906

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 05 Oct 2018 11:51
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:43

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Contributors

Author: V.G. Cleante
Author: M.J. Brennan
Author: G. Gatti
Author: D.J. Thompson ORCID iD

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