A wide-frequency triboelectric vibration sensor for self-powered machinery health monitoring

Abnormal vibration is usually a precursor to structural damage and performance degradation industrial equipment and transportation. Vibration detection at critical locations such as electrical motors and bearings within large equipment has emerged as an indispensable method for machinery health monitoring. Current vibration detection instruments mostly need to be powered by cables or batteries, which has application limitations in complex moving equipment and restricted space. In this paper, a disc-like triboelectric nanogenerator (DL-TENG) with a multi-sized honeycomb structure is proposed as an innovative solution for achieving wide band and high precision acceleration detection of the vibration. Multi-diameter polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) balls are used as friction materials to achieve the high voltage output of the TENG, providing sufficient energy for the detection circuit. By carefully designing suitable honeycomb structures for PTFE balls of different diameters, the ability to detect broadband vibration signals is obtained. The experimental results demonstrate that DL-TENG with honeycomb structure and multi-size PTFE balls can detect acceleration signals ranging from 10 to 2000 Hz, and the acceleration measurement range can reach 1-11 m/s² with an acceleration resolution of 0.1 m/s². Moreover, DL-TENG can output more than 80 V peak-to-peak under vibration conditions of 11 m/s². And under vibration conditions of 8 m/s², the DL-TENG can fully charge a 100 μF capacitor to 5 V in just 100 seconds. By equipping a special circuit for DL-TENG, wireless self-powered vibration detection is realized. This study is expected to be applied in the scenario of vibration information collection in complex ring vibration environment and provides a new paradigm for the realization of self-powered vibration sensors.