Project Summary

This project will fund the development of a mechanical energy-harvesting module that will scavenge vibration and rocking/swaying of rail freight carriages specific to rail applications.

Project Achievements

Activities Creation of ruggedized packaged autonomous data acquisition equipment to capture high speed signals from 3-axis accelerometers and inclinometer during operation of rail freight wagons was deployed on rolling freight wagon and shunt locomotive. Post processing of acquired data was performed to characterise temporal and spectral content of available vibration/motion of the freight wagon. Creation of two candidate energy harvesting mechanical systems concepts to harness rail sway. mechanical systems have been designed to exploit sway motion, and a numerical simulation tool was created to assist in the design and analysis of harvesting systems.

Conclusions

Characterisation of amplitude and frequency characteristics of freight wagon sway has given very good insight into the fundamental design requirements of candidate energy harvesting devices suited for this application. Scavenging of even modest power budgets from rail freight wagon sway will allow FOCs to perform ‘always-on’ monitoring of rolling assets with IIOT sensor systems. This will answer some of the digitalisation challengers identified by the FOCs, and should enable the adoption of predictive-maintenance strategies to optimally manage maintenance of rolling stock.

Next Steps

Because of legal and availability challenges, system of deployed only at low speed. Data from full-speed operations must be obtained. A working mechanical prototype of two concept design candidates will be produced and tested. We have received strong expressions of interest from a number of UK FOCs who recognise that application of predictive maintenance capability on their rolling stock fleets represents a potentially disruptive capability for them. Tens of thousands of unpowered rail freight vehicles currently operate in the UK alone.