Parameter Study of the Variable Reluctance Energy Harvester for Smart Railway Axle Box Bearing

Self-powering capability for bearing health monitoring systems is an appealing ideal, which has attracted considerable attention but difficult to realize. This paper proposes a variable reluctance energy harvester (VREH) integrated within in smart railway axle box bearing. The effects of key parameters are numerically discussed to obtain the optimal geometrical parameters of the VREH under the limited inner space of the bearing. The experimental results verify that the optimization design of the VREH is practicable and effective. Under the rotational speed of 1200 r/min and impedance matching, the RMS voltage and power of the optimal load reaches 1.54 V and 39.53 mW, respectively.