Aeroelastic characteristics of linear and nonlinear piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester

Abstract

In the present study, a piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester using nonlinear aeroelastic behaviors is proposed, and their characteristics and performance are investigated. The energy harvester is modeled by a two-dimensional typical section airfoil. The nondimensional parameters of the harvester are introduced, and the nondimensional piezo-aeroelastic equations are formulated. For the piezo-aeroelastic analysis, the root-locus method and time-integration method are used, and the present method is verified with experimental and analytical results. The iterative method is introduced to calculate the frequency response functions of a nonlinear piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester. The aeroelastic characteristics of a linear piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester and the effects of parameters are investigated. The results show that the linear piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester can be used to generate electricity only at the vicinity of flutter speed. It is assumed that the nonlinear piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester has free play and cubic hardening in pitch. For free play, nonlinear aeroelastic results show that stable limit cycle oscillations are observed in the wide range of air speed below flutter speed when the frequency ratio is 1.3, and unstable limit cycle oscillations are observed at air speeds over flutter speed when the frequency ratio is 0.3. For cubic hardening, unstable limit cycle oscillations are observed at air speeds below flutter speed when the frequency ratio is 0.3, and stable limit cycle oscillations are observed at air speeds over flutter speed when the frequency ratio is 1.3. Finally, the authors discussed how to use these aeroelastic responses for piezo-aeroelastic energy harvesting.

Enhanced mechanical energy extraction from transverse galloping using a dual mass system

“…Modeling and experimental results are given by Bryant and Garcia [17], where piezoelectric conversion was employed. Theoretical extensions can be found in Abdelkefi et al [18] or Bae et al [19], where structural and aerodynamic nonlinearities are considered in the piezoaeroelastic system, and in Abdelkefi et al [20] where a cambered wing-based is considered. Finally, the energy-harvesting eel proposed by Allen and Smits should be mentioned, where a piezoelectric membrane is placed in the wake of a bluff body [21,22].…”

A Preliminary Study on Piezo-aeroelastic Energy Harvesting Using a Nonlinear Trailing-Edge Flap

“…Substituting Equation (14) into the Laplace transform of Equation (9) leads to the following statespace equations.…”

“…These LCOs can be used to harvest energy without serious structural damage of the wing. The authors extend their previous work [14] to a two-dimensional airfoil section with a nonlinear TEF to investigate its nonlinear aeroelastic characteristics. Fig.…”

“…There exist two approaches to obtain the solutions for Equation (18) [14,19]. O in the frequency domain, and the other is the time-integration method in the method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem in Equation (18).…”

“…Hence, energy harvesting using a linear form of aeroelastic oscillation such as flutter might be very dangerous or impossible. More recently, Bae and Inman [14] investigated the linear and nonlinear aeroelastic characteristics of a piezo-aeroelastic energy harvester. They introduced several new nondimensional parameters and presented nondimensional piezo-aeroelastic equations to exploit the effects of parameters on the piezo-aeroelastic characteristics.…”