A Novel Approach for Energy Harvesting from Feedback Fluidic Oscillator

Abstract

Piezoelectric patches are widely used on a micro scale energy harvesting due to their simplicity and high flexibility. In this study a fluidic oscillator was used to effectively convert the kinetic energy of a fluid into the strain energy of the piezoelectric structure. The relationship between the input velocity and the frequency of fluid fluctuations in the fluidic oscillator was obtained and different positions for the piezoelectric beam and the effect of the input velocity on the output voltage was examined. The optimum electrical resistance was finally calculated for the maximum harvested power and the pressure drop caused by the fluidic oscillator and piezoelectric beam was investigated. The results indicated when the free end of the beam was inside the main chamber of oscillator, the beam fluctuates with its natural frequency so that the fluid oscillations frequency is close to the natural frequency at different velocity. However, when the free end of the beam was outside the main chamber, the voltage and power were maximized at the frequency of fluid oscillation equal to the natural frequency of the piezoelectric beam.