Performance improvement of aeroelastic energy harvesters with two symmetrical fin-shaped rods

The characteristics of a piezoelectric aeroelastic energy harvester with a pair of fin-shaped rods (FSR) symmetrically fixed on the circular cylinder surface are experimentally investigated. The circumferential location of FSR is defined by the placement angle which is measured from the front stagnation point of cylinder to the upstream edge of FSR. The placement angle ranges from 0° to ±150° and the coverage of one rod is equivalent to 30°. The experimental results show that the optimal placement angles of FSR are 30°–60° where synchronization region of the vibrational cylinder can be obviously expanded. The maximum harvested power can reach 998 ​μW which is 25.5 times as high as that of a smooth circular cylinder. Moreover, the wind speed range which can be utilized for energy harvesting is significantly broadened. The aeroelastic energy harvester can harness wind energy as slow as 1.0 ​m/s and can continuously harvest energy when the wind speed beyond critical value.