Enhancing the Performance of Piezoelectric Wind Energy Harvester Using Curve‐Shaped Attachments on the Bluff Body

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a piezoelectric wind energy harvester that operates by a galloping mechanism with different shaped attachments attached to a bluff body. A comparison is made between harvesters that consist of different shaped attachments on a bluff body; these include triangular, circular, square, Y‐shaped, and curve‐shaped attachments. Simulation of the pressure field and the velocity field variation around the different shaped bluff bodies is performed and it is found that a high pressure difference creates a high lift force on the bluff body with curve‐shaped attachments. A theoretical model based on a galloping mechanism is presented, which is verified by experiments. It is observed that the proposed harvester with curve‐shaped attachments provides the best performance, where the harvester with a curve‐shaped attachments provides the highest voltage and power output compared to the other shaped harvesters examined in this study. This paper provides a new concept for improving the power performance of the piezoelectric wind energy harvesters with modifications made on the bluff body.

Keywords

• curve‐shaped attachments
• galloping
• galloping instability
• piezoelectric energy harvesting