A piezoelectric energy harvester based on flow-induced flexural vibration of a circular cylinder

This article proposes a new piezoelectric structure for energy harvesting from flow-induced vibrations. It consists of a properly poled and electroded flexible ceramic cylinder. When it is in a flow perpendicular to its axis, the flow exerts a transverse force on the cylinder due to asymmetric vortex shedding, which drives the cylinder into flexural vibrations with an electrical output. A one-dimensional model is derived for the motion of the cylinder, which allows an analytical solution from which the basic behaviors of the energy harvester are calculated and examined. For a cylinder of 40 cm in length and 1 cm in diameter in flowing air with a speed of 5 m/s, the output power is of the order of 10 − 3 W . It becomes significantly higher if the flow speed is increased.

[1]  Jan M. Rabaey,et al.  A study of low level vibrations as a power source for wireless sensor nodes , 2003, Comput. Commun..

[2]  Yuan-Cheng Fung,et al.  An introduction to the theory of aeroelasticity , 1955 .

[3]  Mary Anne White,et al.  Properties of Materials , 1999 .

[4]  Jiashi Yang,et al.  Performance of a piezoelectric bimorph for scavenging vibration energy , 2005 .

[5]  A. Smits,et al.  Energy harvesting eel , 2001 .

[6]  Dung-An Wang,et al.  A shear mode piezoelectric energy harvester based on a pressurized water flow , 2011 .

[7]  K.-H. Chang,et al.  Electromagnetic energy harvesting from flow induced vibration , 2010, Microelectron. J..

[8]  J. S. Yang,et al.  A new ceramic tube piezoelectric gyroscope , 2003 .

[9]  Mohammed F. Daqaq,et al.  A scalable concept for micropower generation using flow-induced self-excited oscillations , 2010 .

[10]  Qiang Zhu,et al.  Mode coupling and flow energy harvesting by a flapping foil , 2009 .

[11]  Yuantai Hu,et al.  Performance of a piezoelectric harvester in thickness-stretch mode of a plate. , 2005, IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control.

[12]  Dung-An Wang,et al.  Piezoelectric energy harvesting from flow-induced vibration , 2010 .

[13]  Jan Augustynski,et al.  Very efficient visible light energy harvesting and conversion by spectral sensitization of high surface area polycrystalline titanium dioxide films , 1988 .

[14]  Qiang Zhu,et al.  Energy harvesting through flow-induced oscillations of a foil , 2009 .

[15]  Chunli Zhang,et al.  Low-frequency magnetic energy harvest using multiferroic composite plates , 2010 .

[16]  N. Elvin,et al.  Energy Harvesting from Highly Unsteady Fluid Flows using Piezoelectric Materials , 2010 .