Wireless sensor node for detection of freight train derailment

Andrea Costa; Damiano Milani; Ferruccio Resta; Gisella Tomasini

doi:10.1117/12.2220770

20 April 2016 Wireless sensor node for detection of freight train derailment

Andrea Costa, Damiano Milani, Ferruccio Resta, Gisella Tomasini

Proceedings Volume 9803, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2016; 98034W (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2220770
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Abstract

The target of the research activity presented in this paper is to design, to realize and to test an autonomous sensor node able to measure the accelerations in correspondence of the axle box of a freight train. The final goal of the sensor is to identify the derailment conditions by observing the variations in the spectra of the box accelerations, around the frequencies associated to the wheel revolution and its multiples.

The sensor node embeds an accelerometer, a microprocessor, a transmission system, a piezoelectric bimorph energy harvester and an integrated circuit for managing the power distribution to each component of the node.

In particular, a mechanical filter to be applied to the node was specifically designed to increment the energy recovered by the harvester and to filter out the high frequency components of the axle-box acceleration, allowing the use of a more sensitive accelerometer. The harvesting system was setup by means of laboratory tests carried out with an electromechanical shaker and the sensor node was finally tested through field tests on freight trains.

Citation Download Citation

Andrea Costa, Damiano Milani, Ferruccio Resta, and Gisella Tomasini "Wireless sensor node for detection of freight train derailment", Proc. SPIE 9803, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2016, 98034W (20 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2220770

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