Electrodynamic energy harvester for electrical transformer’s temperature monitoring system

Abstract

The development of an electrodynamic energy harvester (EDEH) for operating a wireless temperature monitoring system for electrical transformer is reported in this work. Analytical modeling, fabrication and characterization of EDEH prototype are performed. The developed EDEH consists of a mild steel core, a wound copper coil and Teflon housing. COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to optimize the design of the harvester. The split-cylindrical design of the developed EDEH permitted the harvester to be wrapped around the output power cable of the electrical transformer without shutting-off the power or disconnecting the power cable. From the electrical transformer, at current levels of 27, 72 and 155 A in the main power line, the energy harvester produced maximum RMS load voltages of 0.356, 1.09 and 2.58 V respectively, when connected to 100 Ω load resistance. However, at matching impedance of 24 Ω (resistance of the coil), the EDEH produced the maximum power levels of 2.99, 19.66 and 112.03 mW for a cable currents of 27, 72 and 155 A respectively. The simulation results of the devised analytical model of the harvester are in good agreement with the experimental results. Moreover, at a cable current of 93 A, when the harvester is connected to the rectifying circuit, the optimum impedance shifted to 185 Ω and the maximum power of 19 mW is generated at that load. The reduction in power generation is attributed to the power consumption of the rectifying circuit. When the rectified DC voltage is used to charge a 3.8 V, Nickel–Cadmium (Ni–Cd) rechargeable battery, it took 3 h to completely charge the battery from 1 to 3.85 V. With the charged battery a wireless temperature sensor node is successfully operated for monitoring the temperature of the electrical transformer.