Although condition monitoring is very important for a reliable operation of tram powertrain\ncomponents, conventional wired sensor systems do not manage to find wide acceptance because of\ninstallation and security costs. To address those issues, we propose a novel condition monitoring\nsystem based on a wireless and energy self-sufficient sensor network, where the individual sensor\nnodes harvest energy from vibrations, occurring while the tram is in motion. First, we performed\nan experimental investigation to identify the most important boundary conditions for the system\ndesign. Second, we designed individual sensor nodes using parameters derived from the previous\ninvestigation. Finally, the sensor network was deployed and tested on the tram gearboxes.\nThe obtained measurement data were recorded at a sufficient sampling rate of 4.56 kHz and were\nsuccessfully transferred from the tram gearbox to the network base station within a radius of\n10 m inside the tram despite factors such as reflections, fading and electromagnetic compatibility.\nA piezoelectric vibration harvester is the power supply for the sensor nodes and it delivers up to\n21.22 mWfor relevant vibration frequency range between 10 Hz and 30 Hz, thus enabling deployment\nof autonomous sensor nodes.\nKeywords: condition monitoring;
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