A hybrid multimodal energy harvester for self-powered wireless sensors in the railway

The operational safety and reliability of the railway in monitoring systems are constantly increasing. However, the self-powered functioning of sensors utilizing energy harvesting technologies could be a challenge due to wireless sensors in the railway. This paper presents a hybrid multimodal renewable energy harvesting system (HHMRES) to power the wireless monitoring sensors such as accelerometer, humidity sensor, inclinometer, and light sensor alongside the railway in remote areas. The system design consists of a multimodal renewable energy system, power generation, and energy storage system. A hybrid solar photovoltaic system combined with a 3D printed wind turbine coupled with an electromagnetic generator was proposed as HHMRES to harvest solar and wind energy simultaneously. The harvested energy can be stored in super-capacitors and utilized for wireless monitoring sensors alongside the railway. A theoretical model has been developed to characterize the HHMRES. The total pressure and velocity contours were studied through the simulations in ANSYS FLUENT. The experiments were carried out to validate the performance and dynamics of the HHMRES by simulating solar radiations and wind flow with a solar simulator and the wind tunnel, respectively. The results showed that the average output power of the proposed system was 12.31 W at 17.5 m/s wind speed and 1700 W/m2 solar radiations. The techno-economic optimization of HHMRES was performed in HOMER software to find the most optimal design structure, capital cost, operating cost, and replacement cost of the proposed model. The harvester was demonstrated to have significant power output to operate wireless sensors alongside the railway.