Experimental Investigation on a Novel Airfoil-Based Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Aeroelastic Vibration

Abstract

This paper presents a novel airfoil-based piezoelectric energy harvester (EH) with two small square prisms attached to an airfoil. This harvester can achieve a two degree-of-freedom (DOF) plunge–pitch motions. Several prototypes of energy harvester were fabricated to explore the nonlinear aerodynamic response and the output performance in a wind tunnel. The experimental results showed that the longer the flexible spring was, the lower the critical velocity and frequency of the harvester were, and the better aerodynamic response and output performance could be achieved. The initial disturbance, the following limit-cycle oscillation, and the ultimate chaos of nonlinear response occurred, as increasing airflow velocity was increased. The overall output performance of the harvesters with a flexible spring having a thickness of 1 mm outperformed than that of the harvesters with a flexible spring having a thickness of 0.5 mm at a higher airflow velocity, while the tendency was opposite at a lower velocity. An optimum output voltage of 17.48 V and a power of 0.764 mW were harvested for EH-160-1 at 16.32 m/s, which demonstrated it possessed better performance than the other harvesters. When the capacitor was charged for 45 s and directly drove a sensor, it could maintain working for 17 s to display temperature and humidity in real time.

Influence of vehicle body vibration induced by road excitation on the performance of a vehicle-mounted piezoelectric-electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester

“…When driving, the surface of the car will generate continuous airflow and the airfoil will withstand the effects of aerodynamic lift and moment. Due to the existence of a phase difference between the instantaneous aerodynamic force acting on the structure and the structural displacement, positive feedback can occur during the vibrations of the structure [5,41]. As the structure continuously absorbs energy from the flow, the amplitude of vibrations will increase continuously and diverge if the aerodynamic damping is greater than the mechanical damping.…”

Multimodal piezoelectric wind energy harvester for aerospace applications

“…Followed by the results of limit cycle oscillations, an airfoil‐based piezoelectric energy harvester is also studied in which the electrical response is investigated by varying the critical wind speed. Non‐linearity in the system is observed after the post‐flutter velocity and therefore, this particular region has been found critical for aerospace applications 44 . A piezoelectric curved panel is also utilized to capture flutter velocity for powering the wireless sensors in the aircraft.…”

“…Non-linearity in the system is observed after the post-flutter velocity and therefore, this particular region has been found critical for aerospace applications. 44 A piezoelectric curved panel is also utilized to capture flutter velocity for powering the wireless sensors in the aircraft. Researchers have validated the dynamic response of the harvester by changing the geometrical parameters of the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric material.…”