A self-powered wireless bolt for smart critical fastener

In this paper, we present the design of a smart bolt for high-end electro-mechanical systems. The bolt is equipped with temperature sensor, an RF chip and it is powered by a Thermoelectric generator (TEG). The work includes the design choices on the small size TEG, and characterizations of the TEGs and DC-DC converters suitable for ensuring reliability and energy neutral conditions. The characterization was done to determine the amount of power that can be generated from a TEG under different loads and at temperature gradients typical of mechanical environments. Performance demonstrate that the power generated at different temperature gradients extracted by means of a boost converter, is sufficient to guarantee continuous wireless monitoring service for high value critical fastener such as avionic, motorsport, and aerospace.