A self-adapting wind energy harvesting system for application in canyon bridge

Abstract

Many countries have increasingly built canyon bridges to develop road-based traffic in uneven terrain. Mostly, these bridges are installed far from residential areas where electricity supply is challenging. The health monitoring of these bridges is the most critical concern and gained extensive attention for safe operation with longevity. In order to solve the power supply problem of the canyon bridge health monitoring system (HMS), an adaptive electromagnetic induction-based wind energy harvesting system is proposed. The wind energy harvesting system can help to attain a zero-energy canyon bridge health monitoring system without external cables and chemical batteries. The wind energy harvesting system captures the natural wind and the wind generated by the passing vehicles. The adaptive power generation module adjusts the current most suitable electromagnetic induction mode according to the wind speed and generates electrical energy. The energy storage module rectifies the electric energy and stores it in the supercapacitor to power the health monitoring system of the bridge. The feasibility of the proposed system is analyzed by simulating the coupling effect of mixed wind fields and the electromagnetic characteristics of the double-layer disc generator. Finally, experiments show that a single wind turbine can generate a power of 471.56mW at the wind speed is 14 m/s.