Vibration analysis of transverse galloping of different bluff bodies

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to identify the best Blunt Body (BB) configuration for a piezoelectric wind energy harvesting system. The bluff body configurations studied are square, trapezoid, cone, cylinder, and aerofoil which are experimented on the rectangular and triangular cantilever beam. The increase in displacement and vibration velocity with respect to incident wind velocity is reported experimentally. Experimental findings suggest square BB and triangular cantilever are best suited for transverse galloping. A comprehensive study of galloping of the cantilever beams on its various regions with respect to the wind velocity is done. An overall increase of 27% displacement is reported in the triangular cantilever beam when compared to the rectangular cantilever beam. Cut–in speed for the above configurations is also studied and results are plotted. Results prove Trapezoidal BB and aerofoil BB has the least and highest cut-in speed respectively.