Battery Solution for Bridge Monitoring System

The ideal battery solution for a Bridge Monitoring System is typically a high-capacity, long-life, and robust power source designed for remote, autonomous, and low-power operations in harsh environmental conditions.

It requires extended operational lifespan (often 5-10+ years) to minimize maintenance trips, wide operating temperature range, and reliable performance for sensors and data acquisition units.

The final selection depends heavily on the system’s power consumption, deployment location, required autonomy, and budget.

What Is Bridge Monitoring System?

A bridge monitoring system is an intelligent solution designed to continuously track the structural health and performance of bridges.

Strain gauges, accelerometers, tilt meters, temperature sensors, and displacement sensors…

These are the network of sensors to measure factors like stress, vibration, tilt, and load changes in real time.

These sensors collect data that help engineers detect early signs of damage, fatigue, or instability, ensuring safety and extending the bridge’s lifespan.

It requires long-term, maintenance-free deployments to awaken the sensor infrequently (hourly/daily) and transmit short bursts precisely.

That’s why they use primary lithium battery and hybrid supercapacitor.

Real Application Test with Battery Solution on Bridge Monitoring System

Electricity Mode of Monitoring Equipment

Electricity requirement:

• Voltage: 5V
• Peak current: 2A
• Temperature: -10℃~60℃

The indoor power supply must guarantee the capacity consumption for more than 60 days, and the outdoor power supply must guarantee the capacity consumption for more than 7 days without charging.

Analyze:

• Voltage 5V:  HPC single cell voltage 4.1V、minimum voltage 2.5V；
• Peak current 2A：HPC can fully meet the requirements (see the figure below)
• Temperature: HPC can complete basic work at -40℃~+85℃, and can fully meet the temperature requirement of -10℃~60℃.

Scheme design (indoor):

The indoor power mode selects HPC1550-10P (4V 4500mAh) to meet the demand side.

According to the indoor power consumption mode, it can be calculated that the daily consumption capacity is 62mAh, and the capacity of HPC1550-10P is 4500mAh, which can fully meet the basic work of 60 days.

According to the above data, it can be confirmed that the lowest voltage of HPC1550 is 450mAh, and the capacity of 10 pcs HPC1550 in parallel is 4500mAh, which can fully meet the indoor electricity demand.

Charging: The maximum charging current is 2A, the recommended charging current is 1A, the charging cut-off current is 100mA, and the charging cut-off voltage is 4.1V.

Scheme design (outdoor):

According to the outdoor power consumption mode, the daily consumption capacity is calculated to be 45.34mAh. Considering the maintenance-free outdoor power supply, we use solar + battery pack for power supply.

The battery pack is responsible for powering the equipment, and the solar energy is responsible for charging the battery pack.

The battery pack uses 4 pcs HPC1550 in parallel with a capacity of 1800mAh, and the device can be used normally for at least 39 days in the absence of sunlight.

Test Data: Installation test under the condition of weak sunlight in Northwest China (4G communication peak 2A per minute, average 350mA 1 time/hour)

The voltage change under the condition that the solar + battery pack discharges an average capacity of 180mAh per day.

According to the above data, the charging rate of solar energy is greater than the power consumption rate of the device, and the solar + HPC battery pack can fully meet the basic communication power consumption requirements (350mA discharge 60S, 1 time/hour).

Therefore, the solar+HPC battery pack can also meet the outdoor power consumption mode (500mA discharge 10S, 1 time/hour).

Long Sing Technology is your great power solution of Bridge Monitoring System. Let’s talk.