Energy Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes for Freight Train Braking Systems Monitoring

Abstract

Nowadays, railway freight transportation is becoming more and more crucial since it represents the best alternative to road transport in terms of sustainability, pollution, and impact on the environment and on public health. Upgrading the potentiality of this kind of transportation, it would be possible to avoid delays in goods deliveries due to road accidents, traffic jams, and other situation occurring on roads. A key factor in this framework is therefore represented by monitoring and maintenance of the train components. Implementing a real time monitoring of the main components and a predictive maintenance approach, it would be possible to avoid unexpected breakdowns and consequently unavailability of wagons for unscheduled repair activities. As highlighted in recent statistical analysis, one of the elements more critical in case of failure is represented by the brake system. In this view, a real time monitoring of pressure values in some specific points of the system would provide significant information on its health status. In addition, since the braking actions are related to the load present on the convoy, thanks to this kind of monitoring, it would be possible to appreciate the different behavior of the system in case of loaded and unloaded trains. This paper presented an innovative wireless monitoring system to perform brake system diagnostics. A low-power system architecture, in terms of energy harvesting and wireless communication, was developed due to the difficulty in applying a wired monitoring system to a freight convoy. The developed system allows acquiring brake pressure data in critical points in order to verify the correct behavior of the brake system. Experimental results collected during a five-month field test were provided to validate the approach.

Analysis of Wind-Induced Vibrations on HVTL Conductors Using Wireless Sensors

“…For this reason, they have been named “WindNodes”. Nonetheless, thanks to the inherent versatility, their range of application could be extended to any mechanical or civil structure affected by vibrations by suitably modifying their firmware according to the specific application [ 39 , 40 ].…”

“…To perform continuous monitoring activities, WindNodes have been developed to be energetically autonomous through the balance between very low mean power consumption and energy inflow coming from an energy harvester. The energy harvester adopted for this device is a mini photovoltaic (PV) panel, which can obtain good performance in different monitoring activities [ 39 , 40 ].…”

Wireless sensor nodes for freight trains condition monitoring based on geo-localized vibration measurements

“…In fact, the capability to associate diagnostic indicators to the to the train positioning along the railway line is of paramount importance for condition monitoring of both the rolling stock and the infrastructure [26]. The solution based on photovoltaic panels as energy harvester was also adopted successfully in another field campaign on a freight train with the aim of monitoring pressure variations inside the braking system [27].…”

“…26 The solution based on photovoltaic panels as energy harvester was also adopted successfully in another field campaign on a freight train with the aim of monitoring pressure variations inside the braking system. 27…”

“…26 The solution based on photovoltaic panels as energy harvester was also adopted successfully in another field campaign on a freight train with the aim of monitoring pressure variations inside the braking system. 27 For these reasons, a new smart and low consumption system was developed with the aim to perform condition monitoring by acquiring acceleration synthetic data georeferenced through GPS and odometry information. The developed solution, composed of a certain number of wireless sensor nodes and a gateway, represents a sort of hybrid system.…”