Experimental investigation on the efficiency of circular cylinder-based wind energy harvester with different rod-shaped attachments

• Published in: Applied energy 2018-09, Vol.226, p.682-689
• Main Authors: Hu, Gang, Tse, K.T., Wei, Minghai, Naseer, R., Abdelkefi, A., Kwok, K.C.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerodynamic modification; Circular cylinder; Galloping; Vortex-induced vibrations; Wind energy harvesting
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.06.056

•Aerodynamic modification was used to improve efficiency of wind energy harvester.•Two small-size rods with three shapes were attached on the main circular cylinder.•Rods significantly expanded the instability wind-speed range of circular cylinder.•Triangular rods exhibited better performance than circular and square shapes. The performance of a circular cylinder-based piezoelectric wind energy harvester with two small-size rod-shaped attachments on the main circular cylinder was experimentally investigated. The rod had three different cross-sectional shapes: circular, triangular, and square. The two rods were attached on two sides of the main circular cylinder at a series of circumferential locations. They were parallel to the cylinder axis and symmetrical to the stagnation line. It was found that attaching these three rod types at the circumferential locations of 45° and 60°, harvested power continuously beyond the critical wind speed. It was, therefore, dramatically superior over both the plain circular cylinder and the cases with other attachment locations. Additionally, the output voltage for a circumferential location of 60° was greater than that 45° one over the whole working wind speed range. Furthermore, attaching the triangular rods on the main circular cylinder showed a better performance than the other two rod types. The force measurement results indicated that the circular cylinder with triangular rods at the circumferential location of 60° had larger transverse force coefficients than the other two rod type cases, verifying the findings in the energy harvesting tests. Therefore, it is recommended to attach two triangular rods at the circumferential location of 60° on the main circular cylinder in order to enhance the performance of a circular cylinder-based wind energy harvester.