Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Sensors in Structural Health Monitoring of Bearings and Ballscrews

This paper presents an effective development in energy harvesting technologies for structural health monitoring (SHM) in aeronautical applications. The aeronautical industry has a growing need for advanced technologies that can efficiently monitor the health of aircraft components and structures. In this regard, self-powered wireless sensors and piezoelectric kinetic energy harvesting devices have emerged as promising solutions for SHM of airplane transmission components. Autonomous SHM devices typically include sensors, components for data acquisition and elaboration, wireless communication, and energy harvesting. This paper focuses on piezoelectric energy harvesting technology for self-powered sensors, and it presents an embedded solution that can attain full autonomy. We discuss the architecture and requirements of the solution, and we describe energy harvesting system for converting vibrational energy into electric power. Eventually, we present the result of the test campaign and the future development of energy harvesting for aeronautical components.