Abstract
Energy of turbulent wakes can be harnessed using vortex induced vibration harvesters. The unequal pressure distribution due to turbulence on the device generates vibrations which can be converted to electricity through piezoelectric transduction mechanism. The energy harvester concept that is investigated here consists in a polymeric thin flexible plate (that can host piezoelectric elements on each side) placed in the wake of a rigid bluff body. The motion of the plate is similar to that of a swimming eel and can be approximated using a cantilever beam model. Experiments were carried out in a water tunnel, different polyethylene plates were clamped to a square cylinder and a high speed camera was used to simultaneously capture both the plate deflection and the flow pattern. Plates were varied in slenderness; the Reynolds number based on the square cylinder ranged between 1500 and 20,000. From each captured frame, the deflection was computed and used to perform modal decomposition and strain energy calculation. The plate deflection pattern evolves from splitter plate oscillations at low Reynolds number or high flexural rigidity into travelling waves at high Reynolds number or low flexural rigidity. Those travelling waves lead to higher strain energy. The measured velocity vectors show that when the normal flow simultaneously impinges at different locations on both sides of the plate, complex bending shapes result. The frequency delay observed with longer plates show that there is more plate-wake interaction sustaining the turbulence in the wake and thus optimizing the energy transfer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen JJ, Smits AJ (2001) Energy harvesting EEL. J Fluids Struct 15:629–640
Binyet E, Huang C-Y, Chang J-Y (2017) Polymeric flexible plate in the wake of a bluff body for energy harvesting. Proc Eng 199:1296–1301
Dowell EH (1975) Aeroelasticity of plates and shells. Noordhoff International Publishing, Leyden. ISBN: 9028604049
Eloy C, Lagrange R, Souilliez C, Schouveiler L (2011) Aeroelastic instability of cantilevered flexible plates in uniform flow. J Fluid Mech 611:97–106
Giacomello A, Porfiri M (2011) Underwater energy harvesting from a heavy flag hosting ionic polymer metal composites. J Appl Phys 109:084903
Lighthill MJ (1960) Note on the swimming of slender fish. Fluid Mech 9:305–317
Lighthill MJ (1971) Large-amplitude elongated-body theory of fish locomotion. Biol Sci 179(1055):125–138
Okajima A (1982) Strouhal numbers of rectangular cylinders. J Fluid Mech 123:379–398
Raffel M, Willert CE, Wereley ST (2018) Jürgen Kompenhans particle image velocimetry a practical guide, Second edn. Springer, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-540-72307-3
Shelton RM, Thornycroft PJM, Lauder GV (2014) Undulatory locomotion of flexible foils as biomimetic models for understanding fish propulsion. J Exp Biol 217:2110–2120
Shi S, New TH, Liu Y (2013) Flapping dynamics of a low aspect-ratio energy-harvesting membrane immersed in a square cylinder wake. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 46:151–161
Shi S, New TH, Liu Y (2014) Effects of aspect-ratio on the flapping behavior of energy-harvesting membrane. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 52:339–346
Sonalla MI (1989) Vibrations of cantilever beams with various initial conditions. M.D. thesis
Tang DM, Yamamoto H, Dowell EH (2003) Flutter and limit cycle oscillations of two-dimensional panels in three-dimensional axial flow. J Fluids Struct 17:225–242
Tang L, Païdoussis MP, Jiang J (2009) Cantilevered flexible plates in axial flow: energy transfer and the concept of flutter-mill. J Sound Vib 326:263–276
Taylor GW, Burns JR, Kammann SM, Powers WB, Welsh TR (2001) The energy harvesting EEL : a small subsurface ocean/river power generator. IEEE J Ocean Eng 26(4):539–547
Thielicke W (2014) The flapping flight of birds: analysis and application, PhD thesis. https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14094714/Complete_dissertation.pdf
Timoshenko S, Goodier JN (2018) Theory of elasticity. McGraw-Hill, The Maple Press Company, New York. ISBN 10: 0070642702
Wang HF, Zhou Y, Chan CK, Wong WO, Lam KS (2004) Flow structure around a finite-length square prism. In: Proceedings of 15th Australasian fluid mechanics conference, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ck_Chan2/publication/237307611_Flow_Structure_Around_A_Finite-Length_Square_Prism/links/551958470cf2d241f3563737.pdf
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Joseph Lee and Kevin Huang from Long Win Science and Technology Corporation for putting at our disposal a 5000 frames per second high speed camera. Funding was provided by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Grant no. 106-2218-E-007-016).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Binyet, E., Huang, CY. & Chang, JY. Characterization of a vortex-induced vibrating thin plate energy harvester with particle image velocimetry. Microsyst Technol 24, 4569–4576 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-3935-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-3935-x