Among elements of intelligent transportation systems for autonomous vehicles are embedded sensors for the vehicle to structure and vehicle to road communications. Continuous operations of these sensors require local electric power, especially in remote areas. Electric power sources are also needed for structural health monitoring systems, for any structural damage, whether natural (i.e. earthquake) or manmade (i.e. accident). The first phase of the investigation was aimed at a general understanding of wind shear characteristics and transient wind load from passing vehicles under a freeway overpass, using Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (U-RANS) simulations. The results of the investigations have identified wind loading on the overpass poles for distances equivalent to 1W-3W between the vehicle and the structure where W is the vehicle’s width. The transient flow characteristics have shown significant transient wind energy potential and pressure loads on the structure which could assist in designing robust monitoring and communication sensors along with innovation in capturing these wasted energy potentials for local electric power generation. In the second phase of the study, large-eddy simulations along with experimental verifications will be performed to quantify with much more accuracy these preliminary results for obtaining optimization parameters for the development of an energy harvesting system for capturing and utilizing the wasted wind energy potential for electric power generation.
Principal Investigator:
PI Contact Information:
hamid.rahai@csulb.edu
California State University, Long Beach
