Abstract

A smart, safe, and efficient management of water is fundamental for both developed and developing countries. Several wireless sensor networks have been proposed for real-time monitoring of drinking water quantity and quality, both in the environment and in pipelines. However, surface fouling significantly affects the long-term reliability of pipes and sensors installed in-line. To address this relevant issue, we presented a multi-parameter sensing node embedding a miniaturized slime monitor able to estimate the micrometric thickness and type of slime. The measurement of thin deposits in pipes is descriptive of water biological and chemical stability and enables early warning functions, predictive maintenance, and more efficient management processes. After the description of the sensing node, the related electronics, and the data processing strategies, we presented the results of a two-month validation in the field of a three-node pilot network. Furthermore, self-powering by means of direct energy harvesting from the water flowing through the sensing node was also demonstrated. The robustness and low cost of this solution enable its upscaling to larger monitoring networks, paving the way to water monitoring with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. Document type: Article

Abstract

We present the development of an in-house fluid-structure interaction (FSI) solver and employ the solver for state-of-the-art applications in energy harvesting. An implicit partitioned approach is utilized to couple a sharp-interface immersed boundary method based flow solver and a finite-element method based structural solver. The code validations are presented for large-scale flow-induced deformation and vortex-induced vibration of an elastically mounted circular cylinder. We employ the FSI solver for analysis of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a cylinders, with different cross-sections. The suppression and agitation of VIV for different cylinders are discussed along with lock-in characteristics. An energy harvesting model is utilized to estimate the power generated per unit mass and it was found that the galloping of the D-cylinder is useful for broadband energy harvesting for a wide range of reduced velocities.

Abstract

This article develops the literary review of the architectures of energy harvesting systems, identifying parameters such as: frequency, type of antenna, architecture (elements), among others. The methodology has four stages: a) Search for documentation, 10 systems were obtained, which were designated with the letter "S" accompanied by the article number; b) Reading of scientific documents; c) Extraction of information and architecture of the systems, where the stages of each system are detailed (which vary from 2 to 4), the working frequencies (300 KHz to 3.43 GHz, 2.45 GHz being the most used in systems for collecting radio frequency energy). In addition to using in certain systems, multiplier and rectifier circuits in different configurations: half wave, full wave; to later be stored in batteries or directly applied to devices; d) Documentation of the information extracted. Finally, after completing the literary review, it was observed that, in most articles, the systems have 3 stages: antenna, coupling, and rectification that transforms the received energy (alternating current) into direct current, their operation varies in frequency intervals of 1.8 to 2.4 GHz depending on the configuration of each system. Likewise, the product obtained is a consultation APP, with a selection menu of the different architectures investigated, which is a very beneficial contribution for researchers who wish to work in this area.