Wind energy harvesting using piezoelectric materials

This chapter provides an overview of the basic concepts pertinent to wind energy harvesting using piezoelectric materials. The emphasis is on describing physical phenomena such as motion-dependent unsteady aerodynamic forces. Aeroelastic instabilities can arise due to these forces, resulting in limit-cycle oscillations in the structure from which bonded piezoelectric elements extract energy. The instabilities are described under three broad categories: flutter, galloping, and vortex-induced vibration. The piezoelectric electromechanical coupling is described along with feasible upper bounds for energy extraction. The role of nonlinearities in enhancing the energy extracted is also discussed.