Batteryless sensor devices for underground infrastructure : a long-term experiment on urban water pipes

Böbel, Manuel; Frei, Fabian; Blumensaat, Frank; Ebi, Christian; Meli, Marcel Louis; Rüst, Andreas

doi:10.3390/jlpea13020031

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-27852

Publication type:	Article in scientific journal
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	Batteryless sensor devices for underground infrastructure : a long-term experiment on urban water pipes
Authors:	Böbel, Manuel Frei, Fabian Blumensaat, Frank Ebi, Christian Meli, Marcel Louis Rüst, Andreas
et. al:	No
DOI:	10.3390/jlpea13020031 10.21256/zhaw-27852
Published in:	Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications
Volume(Issue):	13
Issue:	2
Page(s):	31
Issue Date:	29-Apr-2023
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	MDPI
ISSN:	2079-9268
Language:	English
Subjects:	Energy harvesting; Thermoelectric generator; TEG; Wireless technology; Underground infrastructure; Leak detection
Subject (DDC):	621.04: Energy engineering
Abstract:	Drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce as the world’s population grows and climate change continues. However, there is great potential to improve drinking water pipelines, as 30% of fresh water is lost between the supplier and consumer. While systematic process monitoring could play a crucial role in the early detection and repair of leaks, current practice requires manual inspection, which is both time-consuming and costly. This project envisages maintenance-free measurements at numerous locations within the underground infrastructure, a goal that is to be achieved through the use of a harvesting device mounted on the water pipe. This device extracts energy from the temperature difference between the water pipe and the soil using a TEG (thermoelectric generator), takes sensor measurements, processes the data and transmits it wirelessly via LoRaWAN. We built 16 harvesting devices, installed them in four locations and continuously evaluated their performance throughout the project. In this paper, we focus on two devices of a particular type. The data for a full year show that enough energy was available on 94% of the days, on average, to take measurements and transmit data. This study demonstrates that it is possible to power highly constrained sensing devices with energy harvesting in underground environments.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/27852
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	CC BY 4.0: Attribution 4.0 International
Departement:	School of Engineering
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Embedded Systems (InES)
Published as part of the ZHAW project:	Smart Water Pipes
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Engineering

Files in This Item:

File	Description	Size	Format
2023_Boebel-etal_Batteryless-sensor-devices-for-underground-nfrastructure_jlpea.pdf		26.88 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

Show full item record

Böbel, M., Frei, F., Blumensaat, F., Ebi, C., Meli, M. L., & Rüst, A. (2023). Batteryless sensor devices for underground infrastructure : a long-term experiment on urban water pipes. Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications, 13(2), 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea13020031

Böbel, M. et al. (2023) ‘Batteryless sensor devices for underground infrastructure : a long-term experiment on urban water pipes’, Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications, 13(2), p. 31. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea13020031.

M. Böbel, F. Frei, F. Blumensaat, C. Ebi, M. L. Meli, and A. Rüst, “Batteryless sensor devices for underground infrastructure : a long-term experiment on urban water pipes,” Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 31, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.3390/jlpea13020031.

BÖBEL, Manuel, Fabian FREI, Frank BLUMENSAAT, Christian EBI, Marcel Louis MELI und Andreas RÜST, 2023. Batteryless sensor devices for underground infrastructure : a long-term experiment on urban water pipes. Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications. 29 April 2023. Bd. 13, Nr. 2, S. 31. DOI 10.3390/jlpea13020031

Böbel, Manuel, Fabian Frei, Frank Blumensaat, Christian Ebi, Marcel Louis Meli, and Andreas Rüst. 2023. “Batteryless Sensor Devices for Underground Infrastructure : A Long-Term Experiment on Urban Water Pipes.” Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications 13 (2): 31. https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea13020031.

Böbel, Manuel, et al. “Batteryless Sensor Devices for Underground Infrastructure : A Long-Term Experiment on Urban Water Pipes.” Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications, vol. 13, no. 2, Apr. 2023, p. 31, https://doi.org/10.3390/jlpea13020031.