Performance of Self-excited Energy Harvesters with Tip Bodies of Non-circular Cross Section Shapes

Abstract

An experimental study on the performance of self-excited energy harvesters with non-circular tip body shapes has been performed. The two tip body shapes analyzed correspond to a half cylinder and a square cross section. Experiments are carried out in the wind tunnel to record the voltage output of the harvesters at different free stream velocities. The presence of the aeroelastic galloping instability was detected by the behavior of the transversal tip displacement of the harvester as well as the coupling of the motion and shedding frequency from the bluff body. The effect of tip mass, free stream turbulence, tip body shape, and localized stiffness is also studied. The parameter used to evaluate the performance of the energy harvester is the average power generated at every single case tested