Picking up railway track vibration energy using a novel doughnut-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester.

Railway transportation is essential for modern infrastructure, and ensuring safety through real-time monitoring of track conditions is critical. However, providing cost-effective and stable power for sensors in remote areas remains a challenge. This paper presents a novel doughnut-shaped piezoelectric energy harvester designed to address this issue. Under a sinusoidal excitation of 50N and 110Hz, the harvester achieves an output power of 0.047 mW, which increases linearly with load. At optimal resistance (230 kΩ) and a load of 3 kN at 7Hz, the output voltage reaches 37.61V, resulting in an output power of 7.23 mW. In track vibration conditions, the harvester produces an output power of 207.67 mW, making it suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as powering acceleration and speed sensors to monitor train operations and ensure track safety. • A doughnut-shaped piezoelectric harvester applied to track vibration energy harvesting. • Optimal resistance of 230kΩ yields 37.61V output at 3kN and 7Hz load. • Designed for IoT, it powers sensors to monitor train safety and operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]