Abstract
A stochastic approach is presented to evaluate the uncertainties associated with variations in design parameters of a piezoaeroelastic energy harvester. The sensitivities of the harvested power to variations in the load resistance, the eccentricity (distance between the center of mass and the elastic axis), and the nonlinear coe cients are also determined. Moreover, the non-intrusive formulation of the polynomial chaos expansion in terms of the multivariate Hermite polynomials was employed to quantify the sensitivities in the harvested power and the plunge and pitch motions. The results show that the relationship between the input parameters and the harvested power is highly nonlinear. The results show also that the generated power is most sensitive to variations in the eccentricity and that the nonlinear coe cient of the plunge spring is less influential than the nonlinear coe cient of the torsional spring on the harvester's performance.
Highlights
The use of aeroelastic vibrations to harvest energy has been the topic of recent studies
The results show that the generated power is most sensitive to variations in the eccentricity and that the nonlinear coefficient of the plunge spring is less influential than the nonlinear coefficient of the torsional spring on the harvester’s performance
These probability density functions of the output parameters were computed from 450 realizations based on the Monte Carlo simulations (MCs)
Summary
The use of aeroelastic vibrations to harvest energy has been the topic of recent studies. Because the amplitudes of these motions depend on many system parameters, it is important to evaluate the uncertainties associated with variations in the different system parameters and the respective sensitivities to these variations. One could independently vary one parameter and keep the others constant to achieve this objective, a better analysis would allow for combined variations in the system parameters. To this end, we quantify the uncertainties associated with the performance of energy harvesters and the sensitivity of the generated power to variations in the harvester’s parameters. The sensitivities of the harvested power to the load resistance, the eccentricity (distance between the center of mass and the elastic axis), and the nonlinear coefficients of the springs are evaluated
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