The teams at the Virginia Tech Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety (CVeSS) and the Railway Technologies Laboratory do not just watch the trains go by. These experts work on technologies that will enable railways and their suppliers to become more efficient and competitive in their day-to-day operations “. Among the avenues explored, energy recovery is one of the most surprising.
Researchers have developed a railway sleeper that harnesses the kinetic energy produced by moving trains and converts it into electricity. Placed under the rail, it is surmounted by a heavy metal bar mounted on a spring. When the wheels of the train pass over the rail, the weight exerts a pressure which activates a mechanism, which turns a generator.
15 to 20 watts of energy for each wheel passing over the crossbar
« For each wheel of the train that passes, we harvest 15 to 20 watts of energy “, explains Mehdi Ahmadian, director of CVeSS. ” If we have a long train with maybe 200 cars, that’s 800 wheels, which produce 1.6 kilowatts. Once we have stored this energy, we are able to use it to make the tracks smarter by integrating sensors into them.. »
The electricity produced can be stored in batteries and then used to power various sensors and safety and communication equipment along railway lines: traffic lights, level crossing barriers, condition monitoring systems rails, wireless communications, emergency equipment, etc.
A CVeSS team member in front of the kinetic energy harvesting railway sleeper module. © Alex Parrish, Virginia Tech.
In their paper detailing this innovation, the researchers point out that approximately 76% of the total length of US railroad tracks are in rural areas that lack the electricity needed to run smart rail systems. A situation that is certainly found in many other countries.
This type of device for recovering the kinetic energy of railway tracks is not new. But the CVeSS team explains that their system only harvests energy when the train wheels compress it, making it more robust and reliable than bi-directional systems that harvest kinetic energy on release but are more exposed and difficult to protect. ” If we keep our momentum, it promises to be a leap forward for the accessibility of electricity on the railways “, promise the researchers.
>> Read also: What will the trains of the future look like? Here are three prototypes
