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Experimental study of wind energy harvesting from flow-induced vibration of prisms using magnetostrictive material

Research Abstract

A vibration energy harvester was developed using a magnetostrictive material as a power generator and a prism as a wind receiver to harvest energy from low-speed wind by exploiting flow-induced vibration. The present cantilevered vibration power generator has originality for the structure which consists of a U-shaped unimorph beam of Galfenol (iron-gallium alloy). Wind tunnel experiments were conducted for prisms having circular, rectangular, filleted triangular, and V-shaped cross-sections. We focused on transverse vortex-induced vibration for a circular cylinder and low-speed galloping vibration for a rectangular prism with a depth-to-height ratio of 0.2, a filleted triangular prism, and a V-shaped prism. The effect of the width of prisms having a span length of L 200 mm on the transverse vibration characteristics and the power extracted from the vibration generator was investigated. The maximum power generated by cylindrical, rectangular, filleted triangular, and V-shaped prisms with heights of 50, 50, 60, and 50 mm was 1.28, 3.5, 7.83, and 5.02 mW, respectively. These maximum power levels are enough to run a wireless sensor. Moreover, the angle of the V-shaped prism having a width of 50 mm was varied (i.e., B= 6, 90°, 120°, and 150°) and tested in wind tunnel experiments. The V-shaped prism with B= 120° was best from several viewpoints, including low excitation wind speed, safe operation at high wind speed, efficient operation in environmental conditions, and sustainability.

Research Authors
Mohamed Heragy, Takahiro Kiwata, Takahito Hamano, Takuma Shima, Toshiyuki Ueno, Takaaki Kono, Alis Ekmekci
Research Date
Research Journal
Journal of Fluids and Structures
Research Pages
15
Research Publisher
ELSEVIER
Research Rank
Q1
Research Vol
Vol. 119
Research Website
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889974623000786
Research Year
2023