2021 Volume 29 Issue 3 Pages 570-575
In recent years, it has become a world problem that periodic inspection of aging transport infrastructures need huge costs and manpower. As a solution for it, we propose a magnetostrictive vibration power generator from vehicle-induce highway vibrations for battery-free LPWA(Low Power Wide Area) module. We investigate the magnetostrictive vibration power generator, which is suitable for power supply because it has features of simple, robust, and high output. In this paper, we applied this generator to vehicle-induced highway vibration. First, we scale up our generators for increasing output power to generate practical electric power under highway vibrations. The size of the large type generator is 150mm×60mm×50mm and 0.6kg in weight utilizing 16mm×2mm×50mm plate of iron-gallium (Fe-Ga) alloy. Then, we reproduced the highway vibrations in laboratory with simulative vibration experiment system to measure character of generator. We confirmed that it generates a peak voltage of 7V, instantaneous maximum power of 36mW, and total power 52mJ from reproduced highway vibrations for 5minutes. Finally, we tested this system in field, and succeeded in activating battery-free LPWA modules from vehicle-induced highway vibration.
