Abstract:

A track-borne energy transducer is a smart device for harvesting energy of trains or rail transportation systems. In this paper, the authors extend this application through introducing two scenarios of energy harvesting from train-induced wind. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model considering track-borne energy transducer is constructed and simulated. For rail-borne piezoelectric approach, the voltage and air pressure profile of the piezoelectric transducer are recorded, indicating a peak-peak output voltage of 1 V under condition that the bluff train body (metro line vehicle) travels over the rail-borne device at a speed of 5 m/s. For track-borne wind turbine generator, the simulated results indicate that the optimal position of wind turbine locates at the bottom of (under) the bluff body; whereas it locates at the side for the streamlined train. Wind tunnel tests are conducted for understanding the electric characteristics of the track-borne wind turbine harvester. Different setup configurations are compared by changing the wind turbines’ position, types of blades, and types of train body. For large-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine, an average voltage of 48.8 V and an optimal power of 5 W are achieved at 1:20 scaled model, 10 m/s wind speed, and 470 Ohm resistance. For vertical-axis bottom-mounted wind turbine, an average voltage of 2.48 V and an optimal power of 110 mW are achieved at 1:20 scaled model, 10 m/s wind speed, and 56 Ohm resistance.

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