Aeroelastic response and energy harvesting from a cantilevered piezoelectric laminated plate

A new nonlinear computational model and code for a piezoelectric-aeroelastic coupled system has been developed. A cantilevered piezoelectric laminated plate in yawed flow (β≤900) and inverted yawed flow (β>900) with a rotated vortex lattice aerodynamic model and new inextensible beam and plate theory is considered in this computational model. For the linear piezoelectric-aeroelastic model a critical flutter or a divergence phenomenon is found for yaw angles β≤900 or β>900 respectively. The divergence speed is independent of the piezoelectric force. Beyond the linear flutter speed, a limit cycle oscillation (LCO) was found for β≤900 and a large static deflection has been observed for β>900. The power extraction from the piezoelectric network depends on the LCO amplitude, the LCO mode shape and the resistive load, R, for β≤900. As flow velocity and resistive load increase, the power extraction increases. From a power efficiency analysis, the best power efficiency is found for a flag like plate when β=00. This is because this configuration provides the largest LCO amplitude and the best LCO mode shape with a larger bending curvature.