Research on Innovative Application of Energy Self-Powering Technology in Health Monitoring of Wind Turbine Tower Bolts
Abstract
To reduce the operation and maintenance losses caused by critical component failures in wind turbines, this study proposes a piezoelectric-electromagnetic multi-source energy self-powering scheme for tower bolt health monitoring, providing an efficient solution for long-term autonomous sensing in intelligent electromechanical systems. Considering the growing demand for low-power electromagnetic energy harvesting and reliable wireless monitoring technologies, the bolt failure mechanism and tower operating environment are systematically analyzed to develop an innovative composite architecture integrating an arc-shaped piezoelectric harvesting unit with a micro electromagnetic energy acquisition module and a low-power energy management system. A three-level validation framework consisting of simulation, laboratory experiments, and engineering deployment is established to evaluate the proposed approach. Experimental results demonstrate that the device achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 28.7% under vibration frequencies of 0.1–5 Hz and continuously powers monitoring nodes for more than 30 days. Field deployment in a northern wind farm enables 72-hour early warning of bolt loosening and reduces the annual maintenance cost of a single turbine by approximately 32,000 yuan. The proposed self-powered monitoring framework provides a compact, long-life, and cost-effective solution for structural health monitoring of critical infrastructure and offers valuable technical references for electromagnetic energy harvesting, intelligent sensing networks, and wireless monitoring applications in advanced engineering systems.