Smart Rail Track Monitoring by Energy Harvesting

通过能量收集进行智能铁轨监测

• 批准号: 10055659
• 金额: $ 45.05万
• 依托单位: ENCORTEC LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10055659
• 关键词: Smart; Rail; Track; Monitoring; Energy

Rail infrastructure operators globally have begun moves towards smart intelligent network infrastructure built upon the placement of hundreds of thousands of various sensors/device types on and along tracks as required for predictive/preventative maintenance. Deployment is currently significantly hampered by affordability and maintenance liability of suitable trackside power options. Remote cable-delivered power is too expensive and impractical and battery-powered devices are limited by battery lifetimes which means disruptive access, cost and safety challenges of regular changes and the sustainability challenge of extensive battery waste. Energy harvesting-based power has been previously considered but found to produce too little power using the approaches that could be practically implemented.Encortec has a gamechanger energy harvesting-based power solution which solves this problem, providing an order of magnitude greater autonomous power supply than other energy harvesting approaches through a novel patented approach. Magnetic flux energy around rail tracks, generated from track return current by passing trains powered by overhead line equipment (OLE) is harvested giving industry leading levels of power. Thus, power can be supplied to sensors as the trains pass by multiple times per hour. This enables maintenance-free deployment of the full range of wireless sensors giving the frequency and range of sensed data required. Proof-of-concept/technical feasibility of the energy harvesting approach has already been established.This proposed industrial stage R&D project aims to develop full prototype energy harvesting-powered sensor devices covering three Network Rail defined sensing scenarios (flooding, rail temperature and track vibration), combined with long-range wireless communications and data analytics and to investigate performance in the varied real-world live rail environments supported by Network Rail. Induced magnetic flux energy and therefore power varies with a number of factors which will determine real-world practicality of the solution. This R&D is a precursor to later, scaled-up trials to demonstrate the value of a complete solution.

全球铁路基础设施运营商已开始向智能网络基础设施发展，该基础设施是在轨道上和沿着放置数十万种不同类型的传感器/设备，以进行预测性/预防性维护。目前，部署受到合适的轨旁电源选项的可负担性和维护责任的严重阻碍。远程电缆供电过于昂贵且不切实际，电池供电的设备受到电池寿命的限制，这意味着中断访问，定期更换的成本和安全挑战以及大量电池浪费的可持续性挑战。基于能量收集的电源以前曾被考虑过，但发现使用实际实施的方法产生的功率太少。Encortec有一个基于能量收集的电源解决方案，它解决了这个问题，通过一种新颖的专利方法，提供比其他能量收集方法高一个数量级的自主电源。轨道周围的磁通量能量，由架空线路设备（OLE）供电的列车通过轨道返回电流产生，可提供行业领先的功率水平。因此，当列车每小时经过多次时，可以向传感器供电。这使得全系列无线传感器的免维护部署成为可能，从而提供所需的感知数据的频率和范围。能量收集方法的概念验证/技术可行性已经建立。这个拟议的工业阶段研发项目旨在开发完整的原型能量收集驱动的传感器设备，覆盖三种网络铁路定义的传感场景（水浸、轨道温度和轨道振动），结合远程无线通信和数据分析，并调查各种真实的环境中的性能-Network Rail支持的全球实时铁路环境。感应磁通量能量和功率随许多因素而变化，这些因素将决定解决方案的实际实用性。这项研发是后来扩大试验的先导，以证明完整解决方案的价值。