Feasibility study of vibration-electric generator for bridge vibration sensors

Abstract

Identification of damage and changes in performance of large engineering structures has received considerable attention recently. For example, structural health monitoring of bridges can be achieved by attaching accelerometers to various points on a bridge and studying the bridge's vibration signature. Ideally, the sensors would be wireless and completely self-contained to avoid the expense of routing the cables. To achieve this a vibrating-electric generator (with dimensions of the order of 1000cm 3 ) has been proposed to generate electricity from the vibrations of the bridge to power an acceleration sensor. To assess the feasibility of this idea, a model of the power produced from the generator is presented. Vibration measurements have been taken on two typical bridges under normal traffic loads, and the data has been applied as an excitation to the model. It is concluded that the output power would be sufficient to power an acceleration sensor.