Electromechanical and statistical modeling of turbulence-induced vibration for energy harvesting

Abstract

Preliminary experimental studies have shown that piezoelectric structures excited by turbulent flow can produce significant amounts of useful power. The research presented in this paper could benefit applications such as powering self-sustained sensor networks in small rivers or air flow environments where turbulent fluid flow is a primary source of ambient energy. A novel prototype called <i>piezoelectric grass</i> was designed to be a robust solution for harvesting energy in turbulent fluid flow environments. In this paper, the authors present an experimentally validated theoretical analysis of the piezoelectric grass harvester modeled as a single unimorph cantilever beam exposed to turbulent cross-flow. Lastly, a brief parameter optimization study will be presented. This study will demonstrate how the unimorph harvester design could be modified to achieve maximum power output in a given turbulent fluid flow condition.