Engineering Commons^™

Aeroelastic Energy Harvesting Using A Nonlinear Electromagnetic Oscillator, Katherine Bender, Ndungu Muturi, Alex Spies, Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

Results are presented from the design, fabrication and testing of an electromagnetic-inductor device to convert aeroelastic-induced oscillations of an airfoil into electricity. The energy harvester consists of three magnets configured such that the force-displacement relationship can be described by a fifth-degree polynomial. the integration of the harvester into a two-degree-of-freedom, pitch/plunge airfoil system introduces nonlinear stiffness into the plunge direction. This nonlinearity gives rise to limit cycle oscillations which, in turn, are converted to electric power by the harvester. Experimental measurements from wind tunnel tests are compared to predictions of limit cycle response and resulting power generation using a two-degree-of-freedom …