Wind energy harvesting using jet-edge flow oscillations

A novel jet-edge structure for flexible piezoelectric harvester is proposed in this paper which converts wind energy into electrical energy by fluid-induced vibrations. This type of the piezoelectric harvester can be applied to self-powered and auxiliary power supplies for aircraft electronic systems. Here, the operational principle for jet-edge flow oscillations is introduced and a specific example of its application is given in this paper. To study the influence of jet, jet outlet with different sizes and the distance between the cantilever beam and the jet outlet were designed and the operating characteristics were investigated by experiments. Results show that, (1) when the aspect ratio of the jet outlet is less than 8.3, the peak voltage increases with the aspect ratio. (2) With the aspect ratio of 8.3, and the distance between the cantilever beam and jet outlet of 80 mm, the piezoelectric device beam vibrates periodically over the wind speed range of 6 to 14 m/s. (3) The piezoelectric energy harvester (with an optimal load of 2.55 MΩ) could generate a maximum power output of ∼83 μW with a resonant frequency of ∼48 Hz at the wind speed of 14 m/s. These results will be helpful to engineering design for energy harvesting devices.