TY - GEN
T1 - A system for generating electricity using the passage of train wheels for improving railroad track safety
AU - Pourghodrat, Abolfazl
AU - Nelson, Carl A.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - The dangerous nature and history of railroad grade crossings (especially unprotected crossings in remote areas lacking costly electrical infrastructure) motivates engineering efforts to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries. Several approaches and devices have been investigated and developed to harvest energy, mostly from vertical deflection of railroad track to power automated warning systems and track health monitoring sensors. While most of this previous work relied on harvesting energy from the vertical deflection of the railroad track, this paper proposes a mechanism for generating electricity from the passage of each train wheel. A cam-follower mechanism was designed initially to meet the requirements of low noise, shock and wear, and was subsequently used and improved to design a system capable of generating electricity efficiently from the motion of trains traveling in either direction. The development of the device as well as analysis of its predicted power production capability is presented in this paper.
AB - The dangerous nature and history of railroad grade crossings (especially unprotected crossings in remote areas lacking costly electrical infrastructure) motivates engineering efforts to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries. Several approaches and devices have been investigated and developed to harvest energy, mostly from vertical deflection of railroad track to power automated warning systems and track health monitoring sensors. While most of this previous work relied on harvesting energy from the vertical deflection of the railroad track, this paper proposes a mechanism for generating electricity from the passage of each train wheel. A cam-follower mechanism was designed initially to meet the requirements of low noise, shock and wear, and was subsequently used and improved to design a system capable of generating electricity efficiently from the motion of trains traveling in either direction. The development of the device as well as analysis of its predicted power production capability is presented in this paper.
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U2 - 10.1115/DETC2012-70449
DO - 10.1115/DETC2012-70449
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84884598431
SN - 9780791845035
T3 - Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
SP - 1025
EP - 1031
BT - ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2012
T2 - ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2012
Y2 - 12 August 2012 through 12 August 2012
ER -