Date of Award

Summer 2024

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Mandar Kulkarni

First Committee Member

William Engblom

Second Committee Member

Vladimir V. Golubev

College Dean

James W. Gregory

Abstract

With a continuously growing demand for power, driven by the need to reduce our environmental footprint, this research provides an examination of the potential of energy harvesting with smart materials technology and its practical applications. The energy harvesting system considered here works on generating energy through vibrations of a piezoelectric material beam which will undergo sustained vibrations due to flow of air over its surface. It is assumed that sustained limit cycle oscillations of this system will occur at the flutter velocity. This research creates an optimization framework to obtain the best values of parameters that will result in the minimum flutter velocity for the system. Minimization of flutter velocity may lead to the use of the energy harvesting system at lower air speeds, thus increasing its applicability in multiple low-velocity vehicles/scenarios. The study begins with an in depth explanation of piezoelectricity, its fundamental concepts, operational mechanisms, and various applications. Next, the phenomenon of flutter is explained in detail as it is essential for identifying conditions where vibrations can be harnessed for energy generation. Two codes are developed to determine the flutter speed for both steady and unsteady flows, which are also verified against previous studies, ensuring their accuracy and reliability. Further, several codes are created to optimize the minimum flutter speed, initially focusing on a single parameter, then expanding to two parameters and finally optimizing all four parameters simultaneously. With the last case, the flutter velocity is reduced an 80% from its starting value. So far, to the author’s knowledge, there are not too many works that follow a detailed optimization process of the parameters involved in piezoelectric power generation. This optimization process is particularly significant as it lays a foundation for future studies, enabling a more comprehensive and efficient optimization of energy harvesting systems.

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