Usefulness of inclined circular cylinders for designing ultra-wide bandwidth piezoelectric energy harvesters: Experiments and computational investigations

Junlei Wang, Chengyun Zhang, Daniil Yurchenko, Abdessattar Abdelkefi, Mingjie Zhang*, Huadong Liu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)
73 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This study proposes to change the inclination angle (α) of a circular cylinder with respect to oncoming flow in order to broaden the effective wind speed bandwidth of the piezoelectric energy harvester. Comprehensive wind tunnel experiments are conducted to investigate the energy harvesting characteristics of the system under different inclination angles. The experimental results demonstrate that compared to the conventional vortex-induced vibration piezoelectric energy harvester (VIVPEH), an appropriate inclined cylinder can broaden the effective wind speed range for the VIVPEH. It is experimentally shown that the inclined cylinder at α = 60° can reduce the threshold wind speed and broaden the effective wind speed bandwidth by more than 229%. In addition, inclined circular cylinders at α = 25°, 30°, 35°, 40°, and 45° can produce torsional vibration and high voltage output under high wind speed. Through frequency analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, the influence mechanism and causes of torsional vibration are explored in detail. The results show that the axial flow will prevent the free shear layer from falling off and cause the force imbalance at the top and bottom of the inclined cylinder, resulting in a torsional vibration and a series of other phenomena. The appearance of the torsional vibration rapidly reduces the frequency of the conventional transverse vortex-induced vibration (VIV). The superposition of the transverse bending vibration and the torsional vibration within a certain wind speed range results in a high voltage output.

Original languageEnglish
Article number122203
JournalEnergy
Volume239
Early online date27 Sept 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Inclined circular cylinder
  • Piezoelectric energy harvester
  • Torsional vibration
  • Ultra-wide bandwidth
  • Vortex-induced vibration

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Building and Construction
  • Modelling and Simulation
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Fuel Technology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Pollution
  • General Energy
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Usefulness of inclined circular cylinders for designing ultra-wide bandwidth piezoelectric energy harvesters: Experiments and computational investigations'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this