Measured value acquisition of the oscillations at bridges
On the basis of the (Mold Cycle ID) MCID® a so-called energy harvester has been developed in order to capture the oscillations at bridges. The independent module has so far been used for the identification of block molds throughout their entire service life. Furthermore, the cycles were counted and the period of application was registered. The free memory could be used for information relating to the specific application, for example, for storing the manufacturing program of the respective mold (see BFT INTERNAITIONAL 03/09).
Why energy harvesting?
The energy harvester introduced here converts energy from low-frequency oscillations of building structures (2 to 5 Hz) such as, e.g., at bridges into electrical energy to be used as power supply for measuring systems. In future, such devices shall allow absolutely independent operation of sensors for the surveillance of building structures.
To operate a sensor requires a voltage source. When a large number of sensors is necessary, exchanging the batteries would be time consuming and expensive. Therefore, simply a fraction of the energy of the process variable to be...
