Flow-induced vibration of inherently nonlinear structures with applications in energy harvesting

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel design for a flow-induced vibration-based energy harvester, consisting of an elastic L-shaped beam, with an inherent nonlinearity in its structural stiffness as an alternative to the classical cantilever beam used in conventional fluidic energy harvester designs. The L-shaped beam supports a prism at its tip and undergoes large-amplitude galloping oscillations. The results from wind tunnel experiments show that by replacing a conventional linear structure that supports the prism with a nonlinear one, the high frequency flow components, shed from the tip prism, were capable of exciting the oscillations of the structure at higher harmonics of the main resonance, thus enhancing the power density of the energy harvester. As a result of improved power density values, the proposed harvester design holds great potential to be used as advanced space-efficient energy harvesters.

Ceramic-Based Piezoelectric Material for Energy Harvesting Using Hybrid Excitation

“…Moreover, certain customized shapes of a bluff body are studied in an analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesting systems. The paper by Seyed-Aghazadeh et al [ 27 ] investigates the L-shaped beam in which structural stiffness led to nonlinear effects. The proposed design is an alternative to the classical cantilever beam.…”

Recent advancement of flow-induced piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting techniques: principles, structures, and nonlinear designs

“…The results demonstrated that the proposed structure could adapt to different flow regions. Seyed-Aghazadeh et al [105] studied an FIV-based energy harvester consisting of an inherent nonlinear elastic L-shaped beam. Mcneil and Abdelkefi [17] also derived the nonlinear reduced-order model of an energy harvesting absorber under the effects of mechanical and VIV excitations.…”

Analysis of clamped-clamped piezoelectric energy harvester under vortex induced vibration considering the stretching effect

“…Many works have been done to consider the piezoelectric energy harvester when a cubic bluff body is attached to the tip of the beam. The aerodynamic force in this category of works is due to galloping phenomena (Ewere and Wang, 2014;Rezaei and Talebitooti, 2019;Seyed-Aghazadeh et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2012Zhao et al, , 2016Zhao et al, , 2019. Unlike VIV that exhibits large amplitudes only when the vortex-shedding frequency is near the structure's natural frequency (lock-in or synchronization), the galloping phenomenon exhibits large amplitudes after a critical speed.…”

“…The literature review shows that the main element of piezoelectric energy harvesters are often a cantilever beam with a bluff body in its tip. Therefore, the nonlinear effect due to middle layer stretching effect has been neglected in the previous works (Abdelkefi et al, 2012;Akaydin et al, 2010;Dai et al, 2016;Ewere and Wang, 2014;Gao et al, 2013;Hou et al, 2020Hou et al, , 2022Jia et al, 2018;Li et al, 2022aLi et al, , 2022bLi et al, , 2023Ma et al, 2023;Mehmood et al, 2013;Rezaei and Talebitooti, 2019;Seyed-Aghazadeh et al, 2020;Skop and Griffin, 1973;Sui et al, 2022;Sun et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2020;Yang and He, 2019;Zhang et al, 2022;Zhang and Wang, 2016;Zhao et al, 2012Zhao et al, , 2016Zhao et al, , 2019.…”