Design and experiment of self-powered system for noise monitoring sensors of power equipment

Aiming to fulfill the need for noise monitoring of a power grid, a self-powered system was established in this study for noise monitoring sensors of power equipment. Specifically, the self-powered system is a wireless vibrational energy transduction and storage system that has low power consumption and does not require a power supply. It includes a transducer module, a circuit conditioning module, and an energy storage module. In particular, the piezoelectric sheet was designed based on the vibration characteristics of power equipment and a zinc oxide nanowire array was selected as the material of the transducer module, which converts vibrational power used by the power equipment into electrical energy. An LTC 3588-1 chip was adopted for the circuit conditioning module to rectify the electrical energy collected. Meanwhile, lithium batteries were employed for the energy storage module. Through preliminary experimental research, the system demonstrates good energy transduction and storage functions. Regarding the technical characteristics of this self-powered system, the respective installation and maintenance are convenient. Further, such vibrational energy harvesting technology uses the vibration of the power equipment itself as an energy source; thus, it has potential in applications in which obtaining light energy and replacing batteries are difficult.