Extracting energy from Vortex-Induced Vibrations: A parametric study

Here, Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIVs) of a circular cylinder are analyzed as a potential source for energy harvesting. To this end. VIV is described by a one-degree-of-freedom model where fluid forces are introduced from experimental data from forced vibration tests. The influence of some influencing parameters, like the mass ratio m* or the mechanical damping zeta in the energy conversion factor is investigated. The analysis reveals that: (i) the maximum efficiency eta(M) is principally influenced by the mass-damping parameter m*zeta and there is an optimum value of m*zeta where eta(m) presents a maximum; (ii) the range of reduced velocities with significant efficiency is mainly governed by m*, and (iii) it seems that encouraging high efficiency values can be achieved for high Reynolds numbers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.