Energy-harvesting WSNs for structural health monitoring of underground train tunnels

Abstract

Table I shows the average energy harvested by each node from passing trains. As can be seen from the table, the mean energy harvested per train passage varies significantly for different nodes, depending on their position in the tunnel. Node 7, being located close to the station, was exposed to weaker air-flows, because of the limited speed of trains approaching the station. Indeed, node 7 registered an average energy intake of only 5.09 mJ per train passage, while nodes located further away from the station obtained more than 47 mJ per train passage, with a maximum of ≈ 133 mJ harvested by node 3. Table I also shows how the energy gathered per train passage can be employed to perform WSN operations. In particular, we quantified how such energy intake can be used: 1) for communication (in terms of the amount of data that can be received and transmitted); 2) to read/write data from the flash memory; 3) to perform sensing activities (e.g., monitoring humidity and temperature through Telos B onboard sensors); and 4) to read values from the ADC. © 2013 IEEE.