Temperature impact on the performance of galloping-based piezoaeroelastic energy harvesters

The effects of ambient temperature on the level of harvesting energy from galloping oscillations of a bluff body are investigated. A nonlinear-distributed-parameter model is developed to determine variations in the onset speed of galloping and the level of the harvested power when the ambient temperature is varied. The considered harvester consists of a bimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with a prismatic-structure tip mass. A modal analysis is performed to derive the exact mode shapes and natural frequencies of the beam-structure system and their dependence on temperature variations. The quasi-steady representation is used to model the aerodynamic loads. The linear analysis shows that the temperature and the electrical load resistance affect the onset speed of galloping significantly. The nonlinear analysis shows that temperature variation affects the level of the harvested power.