Improved VIV energy harvesting with a virtual damper–spring system

In recent years, energy harvesting systems driven by vortex induced vibrations (VIV) emerged as potential alternative to conventional rotor-based installations, in particular for low flow speeds in water. Best energy outputs are obtained when the flow-dependent VIV frequency locks in the natural frequency of the energy harvesting structure. However, placed in tidal currents or rivers with variable flow rates, the VIV frequency changes, leading to frequency mismatch with efficiency losses. In this paper, we present a new mechatronic experimental set-up to study the harvesting efficiency of a VIV driven cylinder under various flow rates. In particular, we explore options to improve harvesting efficiency by adding computer controlled virtual damping and stiffness to the mechanical system. The setup comprises an elastically mounted, single-degree-of-freedom cylinder within a low-speed water tunnel. Virtual damping and stiffness are applied by controlling the force exerted through a mechanically coupled DC motor. The experiments reveal that optimal values for damping and stiffness are consistent with previous results from the literature. The maximum energy conversion efficiency of around 18% is achieved when oscillation and vortex shedding frequencies are synchronized. The explored parameter space highlights in particular that mismatches between oscillation and vortex shedding frequency strongly decrease the achievable efficiency. By contrast, the peak efficiency is less sensitive to an increase of damping due to energy harvesting. All these observations suggest that VIV driven energy harvesting systems need a real-time structural stiffness control to maintain an economically acceptable efficiency under various flow conditions. In the near future, we plan to automate the structural stiffness control under various flow rates by testing Machine Learning algorithms with our mechatronic set-up.