Triangular Separation Distance Effects on Wave Electrical Energy Harvester Performance

Abstract

Energy scavenging has become a topic of interest toward green and environmentally friendly. Vortex generated in the wake region behind a bluff body is potential to be harvested and transform the mechanical vortices into electrical energy. Therefore, the study of the fluid flow and piezoelectric material is highly potent and a promising research area. Thus, the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) energy harvesting of two bluff bodies in a tandem arrangement is investigated using the 3D simulation. There are four sets of bluff bodies with various distance ratio, x/D from 3 to 6, were analyzed in this simulation. The coupling analysis was analyzed using ANSYS Transient Structural and computational fluid dynamic Fluent module. The triangular width, to 100 mm and the fluid average flow velocity is 1.46 ms−1, which corresponds to Reynold number (Re) of 10k. Four types of analysis have, out; velocity vector, turbulence kinetic energy, piezoelectric tip deformation, and generated output voltage. The results show the bluff shape with spacing ratio 6 has better vortex shedding formation and turbulence kinetic energy formed on both upstream and downstream triangular bluff body. The tips mesh displacement for piezoelectric is highest at space ratio 6 with 7.0 x 10−5 essential, and after 10s the beam deflection is continuing at around 1 x 10−5 m. While the voltage generated is, at spacing ratio 6 with 0.2 v produced. The obtained results are essential to VIV analysis of the dual triangular cylinder with piezoelectric film, which is vital in energy scavenging knowledge.