Development of vibration sensor for self-powered health monitoring system for bridges

Abstract

We developed a novel vibration-sensing device, which is based on giant magnetostrictive effect. The device can generate large voltage in principle, because the magnetostrictive rod can generate large variation of magnetic flux density even by the small and low-frequency vibrations of the bridge girder. The device, therefore, can be used as power generator to supply power to a storage battery, when the device is not used as a vibration sensor, in order to drive the its electric circuit. We carried out field test for the developed device. We describe some test results in this paper.