The effect of non-uniform damping on flutter in axial flow and energy harvesting strategies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-uniform damping distributions affect energy harvesting from flutter in flexible structures within axial flows, revealing that strategic damping placement can significantly enhance power extraction.

Contribution

It extends previous reduced order models to a continuous system, analyzing the impact of damping distribution and intensity on energy harvesting efficiency.

Findings

Non-uniform damping can improve energy harvesting capacity.

Clustered dampers are optimal at low damping levels.

Distributed dampers are more effective at higher damping levels.

Abstract

The problem of energy harvesting from flutter instabilities in flexible slender structures in axial flows is considered. In a recent study, we used a reduced order theoretical model of such a system to demonstrate the feasibility for harvesting energy from these structures. Following this preliminary study, we now consider a continuous fluid-structure system. Energy harvesting is modelled as strain-based damping and the slender structure under investigation lies in a moderate fluid loading range, for which {the flexible structure} may be destabilised by damping. The key goal of this work is to {analyse the effect of damping distribution and intensity on the amount of energy harvested by the system}. The numerical results {indeed} suggest that non-uniform damping distributions may significantly improve the power harvesting capacity of the system. For low damping levels, clustered dampers at the position of peak curvature are shown to be optimal. Conversely for higher damping, harvesters distributed over the whole structure are more effective.