Electro-hydrodynamic synchronization of piezoelectric flags

Hydrodynamic coupling of flexible flags in axial flows may profoundly influence their flapping dynamics, in particular driving their synchronization. This work investigates the effect of such coupling on the harvesting efficiency of coupled piezoelectric flags, that convert their periodic deformation into an electrical current. Considering two flags connected to a single output circuit, we investigate using numerical simulations the relative importance of hydrodynamic coupling to electrodynamic coupling of the flags through the output circuit due to the inverse piezoelectric effect. It is shown that electrodynamic coupling is dominant beyond a critical distance, and induces a synchronization of the flags’ motion resulting in enhanced energy harvesting performance. We further show that this electrodynamic coupling can be strengthened using resonant harvesting circuits.