Energy harvester based on the synchronization phenomenon of a circular cylinder

Abstract

A concept of generating power from a circular cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibration (VIV) was investigated. Two lead zirconate titanate (PZT) beams which had high power density were installed on the cylinder. A theoretical model has been presented to describe the electromechanical coupling of the open-circuit voltage output and the vibration amplitudes based on a second-order nonlinear Van der pol equation and Gauss law. A numerical computation was applied to measure the capacity of the power generating system. The lift and drag coefficient and the vortex shedding frequency were obtained to verify how the nondimensional parameter reduced velocity U r affects the fluid field. Meanwhile, a single-degree of freedom system has been added to describe the VIV, presynchronization, and synchronization together with postsynchronization regimes of oscillating frequencies. And the amplitudes of the vibration have been obtained. Finally, the vibrational amplitudes and the voltage output could go up to a high level in the synchronization region. The maximum value of the voltage output and the corresponding reduced velocity U r were 8.42 V and 5.6, respectively. © 2014 Junlei Wang et al.