ARABIAN JOURNAL FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, cilt.45, sa.7, ss.5207-5214, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, an aeroelastic structure is formed by connecting an aerodynamic profile to the end of a piezoelectric material-glued beam element. The aerodynamic profile is continuously vibrated at the first natural frequency of the structure using an air nozzle. Due to the resonance effect occurred by the vibration of the system, harvested energy from the aeroelastic structure is maximized. In this work, an experimental study on the energy harvesting from the piezo-aeroelastic structure is carried out. In addition, a theoretical model is developed in MATLAB/Simulink environment and obtained analytical results are validated with experimental results. The effect of air velocity on energy harvesting is investigated considering different air velocities. Besides, energy conversion efficiency is calculated and the effects of damping ratio, frequency ratio and coupling factor of the piezoelectric material on the energy conversion efficiency are examined.