There Is Plenty of Room inside a Bluff Body: A Hybrid Piezoelectric and Electromagnetic Wind Energy Harvester

Abstract

In this paper, a piezoelectric and electromagnetic hybrid wind energy harvester is proposed. The general design of the harvester comprises multiple cantilever piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) and electromagnetic energy harvesters (EEHs) embedded inside the bluff body that is attached to the free end of PEHs. This research work investigates utilizing the room inside the bluff body to enclose harvesters to have a more compact and efficient harvesting system. A comprehensive coupled dynamic model of the harvester (HEH) is developed using Lagrange’s formulation. The electromechanical and electromagnetic coupling coefficient equations are derived. The coupled equations of motion are solved analytically and numerically with an exact agreement. A parametric analysis is conducted to study the effect of the design parameters on the overall performance of the harvester in terms of output power and bandwidth. The proposed design evidently presents itself as a promising concept in utilizing the room inside a bluff body.