Flow type electromagnetic based energy harvester for pipeline health monitoring system

Abstract

This work presents a novel flow type electromagnetic based energy harvester for generating the useful electrical power from the flowing fluid in a pipeline. The energy produced by the developed harvester can be utilized to operate wireless sensors nodes used for pipeline health monitoring system. Developed energy harvester has a spherical permanent magnet freely located in a pipe section and a wound coil produced around a plastic pipe. Fluid flow through the harvester causes the magnet to simultaneously float and rotate in the wound coil. This rotation of the magnet induced the voltage in the wound coil. The developed device when applied to an air flow rate of 1.03 l/s generated an open circuit rms voltage of 1 V and a maximum load power of 1456 µW when connected to 290 Ω load. Moreover, when connected to an AC to DC voltage rectifier, the flow energy harvester produced an open circuit potential of 2.5 V DC at the flow rate of 1.03 l/s. Furthermore, at the same flow condition a load DC power of 1190.7 µW is obtained under load resistance of 3 kΩ. Additionally, with the developed harvester a 4 V battery is charged from 0.08 V up to 2.4 V in time duration of 28 min. The power and power density levels produced by the developed energy harvester are significant and are quite enough to operate sensors in wireless health monitoring system of a pipeline.