Investigation of Aeroelastic Energy Extraction from Cantilever Structures under Sustained Oscillations

Abstract

The present article is focused on a detailed computationalinvestigation of energy production capacity of various lightweight materials that are employed with piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters (PVEHs) subjected to various aeroelastic effects. Piezoelectric transducers are primarily employed to capture vibrational energy, which yields predictable and locally storable electrical energy. Higher energy extraction is possible under larger deflections of the structures when they are employed with PVEHs. In order to estimate the largest possible deflection of the structures, the response of them under external perturbations is estimated. An airplane wing consists of tapered planform, an advanced wind turbine blade, and the rectangular wings of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are considered for the vibrational analysis as the feasibility of achieving larger deflection is high compared with other aerodynamic surfaces. The stated elastic structures are modelled with different lightweight materials such as aluminium alloy, glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP), titanium alloy, carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP), and Kevlar fibre-reinforced polymer (KFRP). Advanced partly coupled computational simulations are carried out with computational fluid dynamics (CFDs), and structural and vibrational effects to investigate the energy harvesting potential from the perturbations. Based on the outcomes of vibrational analysis, the raw transformable power production capacity of different lightweight materials that are employed with a cantilevered PVEH is estimated. The most suitable combination of material and associated aeroelastic effect which yields a significant amount of raw energy in each application is proposed and discussed with findings.