Electromagnetic Trackside Vibration Energy Harvester with Cantilever Beams Spring

Railway tracks are a great source of vibrations and need to be monitored. These vibrations could be converted to electric energy with an energy harvester, and it could be used as source of energy for autonomous trackside monitoring systems. This paper analyses acceleration data from one specific railway with different passing trains. This analysis brings requirements for a vibration energy harvester. The novel concept of an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester with cantilever beam spring is designed to achieve the set requirements. This concept is cheaper and easier for fabrication and could reach higher frequencies than the traditional concept with magnetic spring. Finally, the fabrication and experimental validation demonstrate the functionality of the designed energy harvester.