A T-shaped piezoelectric cantilever for fluid energy harvesting

This paper proposes a T-shaped piezoelectric cantilever for generating electric power from fluid flow. The working principle of the device is based on aeroelastic flutter and utilizes a bimorph cantilever with T-shape which hastens occurrence of flutter at a low fluid speed. A prototype device (100 x 60 x 30 mm(3)) was tested in a wind tunnel. The device was found to provide power from a wind speed of 4 m/s and a continuous peak electrical power output of 4.0 mW. The simplicity of the present device consisting of only a bimorph cantilever is considered to be cost effective. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3503609]