Simulation and modeling of self-powered wireless sensor node for railway vehicles

The purpose of this work is to model and simulate a harvester device whose purpose is to recover energy from the vibrations due to the irregularity of the railway and store it in order to subsequently feed a wireless sensor node. The use of a piezoelectric harvester, instead of traditional batteries, allows the achievement of an energetically autonomous system, which does not need periodic maintenance to replace the batteries themselves. Studies about dynamics of trains showed that the axle box represents one of the most stressed components of the wheelset due to the irregularities of the railway line. For this reason it has been chosen as the optimal place to install the piezoelectric harvester. The system designed allows a real-time monitoring for diagnostic and prevention.