Design and Implementation of an IoT-Oriented Strain Smart Sensor with Exploratory Capabilities on Energy Harvesting and Magnetorheological Elastomer Transducers

Abstract

This work designed and implemented a new low-cost, Internet of Things-oriented, wireless smart sensor prototype to measure mechanical strain. The research effort explores the use of smart materials as transducers, e.g., a magnetorheological elastomer as an electrical-resistance sensor, and a cantilever beam with piezoelectric sensors to harvest energy from vibrations. The study includes subsequent and validated results with a magnetorheological elastomer transducer that contained multiwall carbon nanotubes with iron particles, generated voltage tests from an energy-harvesting system that functions with an array of piezoelectric sensors embedded in a rubber-based cantilever beam, wireless communication to send data from the sensor’s central processing unit towards a website that displays and stores the handled data, and an integrated manufactured prototype. Experiments showed that electrical-resistivity variation versus measured strain, and the voltage-generation capability from vibrations have the potential to be employed in smart sensors that could be integrated into commercial solutions to measure strain in automotive and aircraft systems, and civil structures. The reported experiments included cloud-computing capabilities towards a potential Internet of Things application of the smart sensor in the context of monitoring automotive-chassis vibrations and airfoil damage for further analysis and diagnostics, and in general structural-health-monitoring applications.