Nonlinear Dynamics of a Broadband Vortex-Induced Vibration–Based Energy Harvester

Abstract

Energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) is gaining more attention in many applied cases. This paper studied the nonlinear dynamics of a tunable VIV-based energy harvester. The energy harvester structure consists of a base-clamped cylinder having an adjustable mass (the tuner) which enables the system to actively synchronize with vortex-shedding frequencies. The Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the extended Hamilton’s principle are used to extract the nonlinear partial differential equations of the distributed model for the cylinder, tuner motion, harvested voltage, and fluctuated lift force. The reduced-order model of the system of equations is derived via the Galerkin method using modified mode shapes. The method of multiple time scales is employed to obtain the approximated analytical solution of the 1:1 internal resonance of the lumped parameter system. The dynamical response of the system is shown by investigating various parameters of the harvester. Additionally, the locus of the points at which the higher orbits of harvested voltage occur is specified for the tuner equilibrium position. The results show the proposed design significantly increases energy harvesting performance by a factor of 900%. This paper is offered as a contribution towards energy harvester design and optimization with the goal of capturing higher energy orbits.