Piezoelectric energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibrations of circular cylinder

The concept of harvesting energy from a circular cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibrations is investigated. The energy is harvested by attaching a piezoelectric transducer to the transverse degree of freedom. Numerical simulations are performed for Reynolds numbers (Re) in the range 96≤Re≤118, which covers the pre-synchronization, synchronization, and post-synchronization regimes. Load resistances (R) in the range 500Ω≤R≤5MΩ are considered. The results show that the load resistance has a significant effect on the oscillation amplitude, lift coefficient, voltage output, and harvested power. The results also show that the synchronization region widens when the load resistance increases. It is also found that there is an optimum value of the load resistance for which the harvested power is maximum. This optimum value does not correspond to the case of largest oscillations, which points to the need for a coupled analysis as performed here.