Effect of Tip Mass Length Ratio on Low Amplitude Galloping Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Galloping beams were exposed to the wind free stream and is used for sustainable wind-power harnessing. In this paper, the effect of tip mass on the performance of a galloping energy harvester is investigated by simple modeling of the system, which is useful for broad engineering applications of these systems. Here, the piezoelectric layer attached to a cantilever beam with a tip mass exposed to the wind free stream is used as an energy harvester. A fluid–solid interaction model is used to simulate the problem. The fluid–solid interaction model is composed of the experimental data for aerodynamic loads and one-dimensional structural model of piezoelectric and beam material with Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. The governing partial differential equations of the system are solved analytically by use of the approximation method. The resulting model is confirmed by preceding experimental results. The effects of the tip mass length ratio on the onset of galloping, the level of the produced voltage, and the harvested power are determined analytically. As shown by increase of the length of tip mass for the constant beam and piezoelectric length, the inertia of the system increases while the tip displacement and onset of galloping decrease.