A piezoelectric energy harvesting scheme based on stall flutter of airfoil section

Abstract

Abstract The stall flutter of the airfoil section has the characteristics of self-excitation and violent vibration. As a new type of energy source, it could provide power for sensors and other devices. In this paper, a new energy harvesting scheme is proposed. A beam is fixed to the trailing edge of the airfoil section along the chord line and a piezoelectric transduction is stick to the appropriate position of the cantilever beam. When the airfoil section flies in stall flutter, the piezoelectric cantilever beam is excited to vibration and then drives the piezoelectric transduction to produce energy output. The system energy harvesting model consists of the dynamic model exported by the Lagrange Equation and the electromechanical coupling equation. The numerical simulation of the model shows that output voltage of a piezoelectric patch has stable amplitude of 1134.2 V and the output power has stable amplitude of 0.3233 W under the condition of resistance load R = 4 M Ω . The output voltage and power are greatly increased. The influence laws of load resistance, wind velocity, airfoil section torsion stiffness, sticking position of the piezoelectric patch, and wind gust are also analyzed by simulation. These analyses are conducive to the subsequent design of similar programs.