Reduced-Order Aerodynamic Modeling of Flapping Wing Energy Harvesting at Low Reynolds Number

Energy harvesting from flowing fluids using flapping wings and fluttering aeroelastic structures has recently gained significant research attention as a possible alternative to traditional rotary turbines, especially at and below the centimeter scale. One promising approach uses an aeroelastic flutter instability to drive limit cycle oscillations of a flexible piezoelectric energy harvesting structure. Such a system is well suited to miniaturization and could be used to create self-powered wireless sensors wherever ambient flows are available. In this paper, we examine modeling of the aerodynamic forces, power extraction, and efficiency of such a flapping wing energy harvester at a low Reynolds number on the order of 1000. Two modeling approaches are considered: a quasi-steady method generalized from existing models of insect flight and a modified model that includes terms to account for the effects of dynamic stall. These two modeling approaches are applied to predicting the instantaneous aerodynamic force histories of an oscillating airfoil as well as parametric studies of the energy extraction efficiency. The modified model is shown to provide better agreement with computational fluid dynamics simulations of a flapping energy harvester.