Electrical generators for railways
AssigneeOmnitek Partners LLC
InventorJahangir S Rastegar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for harvesting energy from a train passing over a railroad rail. The method including transferring a deflection of the rail from the train to a mechanical energy storage device; storing mechanical energy provided by the transfer mechanism until a predetermined amount of mechanical energy is stored; transferring the stored mechanical energy to a generator upon the stored mechanical energy reaching the predetermined amount; and converting the transferred mechanical energy to electrical energy.
Claims7
A method for harvesting energy from a train passing over a railroad rail, the method comprising:
- transferring a deflection of the rail from the train to a mechanical energy storage device with a transfer mechanism;
- storing mechanical energy provided by the transfer mechanism until a predetermined amount of mechanical energy is stored;
- transferring the stored mechanical energy to a generator upon the stored mechanical energy reaching the predetermined amount;
- and
- converting the transferred mechanical energy to electrical energy;
- wherein the transfer of the stored mechanical potential energy to a mechanism disposed between the transfer mechanism and the generator is over a time duration that is longer than an input pulse to the transfer mechanism due to the rail displacement caused by the train passing over the rail.
An energy harvesting apparatus for harvesting energy from a train passing over a railroad rail, the energy harvesting apparatus comprising:
- a first transfer mechanism for transferring a deflection of the rail from the train to a mechanical energy storage device;
- the mechanical energy storage device storing mechanical energy provided by the first transfer mechanism until a predetermined amount of mechanical energy is stored;
- a second transfer mechanism for transferring the stored mechanical energy to a generator upon the stored mechanical energy reaching the predetermined amount;
- and
- the generator for converting the transferred mechanical energy from the second transfer mechanism to electrical energy,
- wherein the first transfer mechanism comprises:
- a one-way damper having one end connected to the rail, and
- a spring serially connected to the one-way damper, the spring and one-way damper together being configured to provide more resistance to extension than to contraction such that the spring transfers the stored mechanical potential energy to the second transfer mechanism over a time duration that is longer than an input pulse to the one-way damper due to the rail displacement caused by the train passing over the rail.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.