Fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with non-rotating bluff body

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11979099-B2
Application number	US-202218021809-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2022
Priority date	Apr 22, 2022
Publication date	May 7, 2024
Grant date	May 7, 2024

Abstract

A fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with a non-rotating bluff body is provided. The apparatus does not use a common design method of rigidly securing a bluff body to an elastic beam in a design of the bluff body, but adopts a manner of connecting the bluff body and the elastic beam through a rotating shaft and a connecting shaft. Because a kinematic pair at a connection position is a rotating pair, the bluff body will only vibrate transversely and will not rotate, thereby achieving an effect of increasing an amplitude at the same frequency, and finally realizing an increase of converted electric energy and improving the conversion efficiency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with a non-rotating bluff body, comprising a bluff body, two rotating shafts, two connecting shafts, two elastic beams, a piezoelectric film, mounting blocks, fixing frames, a sliding rail, sliding blocks, and a fastening device;
the bluff body as a whole is in a shape of a thin-walled cuboid with non-closed ends, two rectangular grooves each is reserved on an edge of the bluff body for connecting to each of the two elastic beams respectively; a first end face of each of the rectangular grooves is provided with a first square entity, and a second end face of each of the rectangular grooves is provided with a second square entity; the first square entity and the second square entity are provided with a through hole and a blind hole respectively, for placing one of the rotating shafts;
the two connecting shafts each has one side provided with a central hole protruded for connecting to one of the rotating shafts and another side being a rectangular sheet connected to one of the elastic beams through an adhesive, wherein the connections of the two connecting shafts and the two rotating shafts limit rotational movements of the bluff body;
each of the elastic beams is placed between two mounting holes of each of the mounting blocks and between the fixing frames and the mounting blocks and is fastened by bolts;
the piezoelectric film is attached to a root of each of the elastic beams to achieve high efficiency of energy conversion;
the mounting blocks are generally rectangular, there are two mounting blocks, each of the mounting blocks comprises the two mounting holes, and the two mounting holes are consistent with two mounting holes on a first end of each of the fixing frames in shape and size;
the fixing frames are L-shaped as a whole, there are two fixing frames, a second end of each of the fixing frames has four positioning holes, the positioning holes are consistent with positioning holes on surfaces of the sliding blocks in shape and size, and are configured for connecting to the sliding blocks, and the first end of each of the fixing frames is provided with the two mounting holes configured for connecting to the mounting blocks;
the sliding rail is in a shape of a cuboid block as a whole;
the sliding blocks are T-shaped as a whole, there are two sliding blocks, a surface of each of the sliding blocks is provided with four positioning holes for connecting to each of the L-shaped fixing frames; and
the fastening device is configured for fixing positions of the sliding blocks.

2. The fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with the non-rotating bluff body according to claim 1 , wherein the through hole and the blind hole are in a clearance fit with the rotating shaft to avoid a shaking phenomenon.

3. The fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with the non-rotating bluff body according to claim 1 , wherein the rotating shaft is slender cylinder shaped, and the rotating shaft is also in a clearance fit with the central hole of the connecting shaft.

4. The fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with the non-rotating bluff body according to claim 1 , wherein the elastic beams are made of a titanium alloy material.

5. The fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with the non-rotating bluff body according to claim 1 , wherein the piezoelectric film is made of epoxy resin.

6. The fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with the non-rotating bluff body according to claim 1 , wherein the fastening device comprises an external handle, a spring, and a stopper, one end of the external handle is connected to the spring, one end of the spring is connected to the stopper, the spring and the stopper of the fastening device are placed as a whole in a groove of each of the sliding blocks, and when a distance between the two sliding blocks is adjusted to be appropriate, the external handle is rotated clockwise to squeeze the spring to drive the stopper to move axially towards an inner sidewall of the sliding rail, until the inner sidewall is touched indicating that tightening is complete and positions of the sliding blocks are fixed.

Assignees

• Univ Jiangsu

Inventors

• Sun Wan
• Zhang Yue
• Cheng Guanggui
• Ding Jianning

Classifications

• H02N2/186 Primary

  Vibration harvesters · CPC title

• H02N2/185 Primary

  using fluid streams · CPC title

• H10N30/306

  Cantilevers · CPC title