Enhanced variable reluctance energy harvesting for self-powered monitoring

With the rapid development of microelectronic technology, wireless sensor nodes have been widely used in rotational equipment for health condition monitoring. However, for many low-frequency applications, there still remains an open issue of harvesting sufficient electrical energy to provide long-term service. Therefore, in this paper an enhanced variable reluctance energy harvester (EVREH) is proposed for self-powered health monitoring under low-frequency rotation conditions. A periodic arrangement of magnets and teeth is employed to achieve frequency up-conversion for performance enhancement under a specific space constraint. In addition, the permeance of the air gap is calculated by the combined magnetic field division and substituting angle method, and the output model of the EVREH is derived for parametric analysis based on the law of electromagnetic induction. Simulations and experimental evaluations under a range of structural parameters are then carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and investigate the output performance of the proposed harvester. The experimental results indicate that the proposed energy harvester could produce a voltage of 8.7 V and a power of 726 mW for a rotational speed of 200 rpm, with a power density of 0.545 mW/(cm³∙Hz²). Moreover, a self-powered wireless sensing system based on the proposed energy harvester is demonstrated, obtaining a vibration spectrum of the rotating motor and stator which can determine the health state of the system during low rotational speeds. Therefore, this autonomous self-sensing experiment verifies the potential of the EVREH for self-powered monitoring in low-frequency rotation applications.