On Energy Harvesting Module for Scalable Cognitive Autonomous Nondestructive Sensing Network (SCANS) System for Bridge Health Monitoring

The SCANS is a structural health monitoring (SHM) system is being developed by Acellent Technologies to monitor steel bridges. The required voltage of the system is 14.4 V for active scanning, and the power consumption is approximately 8 W. The investigated energy harvesting from both solar and thermal sources to recharge the lithium-ion battery of the system. A solar panel and a Thermal Electric Generator (TEG) are used to harvest ambient energy. The thermoelectric device is placed in a Fresnel dome to maximize the temperature gradient of the TEG. During shading of the solar panel, the TEG continues to supply power to the battery charger. Since the output voltages and currents of the solar and thermal energy harvesters vary significantly, the energy harvesting module is constructed by two buck-boost converters operating in parallel. Maximal Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is employed for the buck-boost converter for the solar panel, while a fixed duty cycle converter is used for the TEG due to substantially lower power compared with the solar panel. The system design and measured results of a prototype system are presented. Our prototype system successfully demonstrates that the SCANS system can be powered by the energy harvested from solar and thermal.