Abstract
The development of the Internet of Things infrastructure requires the deployment of millions of heterogeneous sensors embedded in the environment. The powering of these sensors cannot be done with wired connections, and the use of batteries is often impracticable. Energy harvesting is the common proposed solution, and many devices have been developed for this purpose, using light, mechanical vibrations, and temperature differences as energetic sources. In this paper we present a novel energy-harvester device able to capture the kinetic energy from a fluid in motion and transform it in electrical energy. This device, named FLEHAP (FLuttering Energy Harvester for Autonomous Powering), is based on an aeroelastic effect, named fluttering, in which a totally passive airfoil shows large and regular self-sustained motions (limit cycle oscillations) even in extreme conditions (low Reynolds numbers), thanks to its peculiar mechanical configuration. This system shows, in some centimeter-sized configurations, an electrical conversion efficiency that exceeds 8% at low wind speed (3.5 m/s). By using a specialized electronic circuit, it is possible to store the electrical energy in a super capacitor, and so guarantee self-powering in such environmental conditions.
Highlights
Internet of Things (IoT) is the big evolution of electronics
We present the experimental results, in which a first subsection is focused on the FLEHAP energy-harvester operations, while a second one is focused on the energy-harvesting circuit
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and smoke fluid visualization show that a vortex is created at the leading edge (LE) when the wing reaches an angle larger than 30◦
Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) is the big evolution of electronics It is based on the concept of omnipresent connectivity among different objects which in a large part are networks of wireless sensors (NWS). Such a complex system requires sensors, microcontrollers, and radio devices enabling the transmission of the collected information to the Internet (the Cloud). Installation and replacement costs can become too high if the network involves hundreds or thousands nodes For this reason, the possibility for an application to stay reliable and economically viable on the long term (10 years or more) will more and more depend on the node’s capability to recover energy from the node’s environment, (energy harvesting, EH), either to prevent the battery from discharging or, even better, to get rid off the battery itself. Among other available sources (mechanical vibrations, light, temperature difference, etc.), a fluid in motion (air, water) can represent a useful resource of energy if a specialized device is constructed
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