19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting

In this paper, two mounting systems are studied and compared. The first is a new system in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) wherein a cantilevered thin flexible plate is aligned with a uniform flow with the upstream end of the plate attached to a spring-mass system: this allows the entire system to...

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Main Authors: Howell, R., Lucey, Anthony
Format: Conference Paper
Published: 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33609
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author Howell, R.
Lucey, Anthony
author_facet Howell, R.
Lucey, Anthony
author_sort Howell, R.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description In this paper, two mounting systems are studied and compared. The first is a new system in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) wherein a cantilevered thin flexible plate is aligned with a uniform flow with the upstream end of the plate attached to a spring-mass system: this allows the entire system to oscillate in a direction perpendicular to that of the flow as a result of the mounting's dynamic interaction with the flow-induced oscillations, or flutter, of the flexible plate; we compare this system to one where the upstream end is hinged with a rotational spring at the mount. While the first system is a fundamental problem in FSI, the study of this variation on classical plate flutter is also motivated by its potential as an energy-harvesting system in which the reciprocating motion of the support system would be tapped for energy production. In this paper we formulate and deploy a hybrid of theoretical and computational models for the fluid-structure systems and map out their linear stability characteristics. The computational model detailed is a fully-implicit solution that is very robust to spatial and temporal discretisation. Compared to a fixed cantilever, the introduction of the dynamic support in both systems is shown to yield lower flutter-onset flow speeds and for the spring-mounted cantilever a reduction of the order of the mode that yields the critical flow speed; these effects would be desirable for energy harvesting applications.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-336092017-01-30T13:38:08Z 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting Howell, R. Lucey, Anthony In this paper, two mounting systems are studied and compared. The first is a new system in fluid-structure interaction (FSI) wherein a cantilevered thin flexible plate is aligned with a uniform flow with the upstream end of the plate attached to a spring-mass system: this allows the entire system to oscillate in a direction perpendicular to that of the flow as a result of the mounting's dynamic interaction with the flow-induced oscillations, or flutter, of the flexible plate; we compare this system to one where the upstream end is hinged with a rotational spring at the mount. While the first system is a fundamental problem in FSI, the study of this variation on classical plate flutter is also motivated by its potential as an energy-harvesting system in which the reciprocating motion of the support system would be tapped for energy production. In this paper we formulate and deploy a hybrid of theoretical and computational models for the fluid-structure systems and map out their linear stability characteristics. The computational model detailed is a fully-implicit solution that is very robust to spatial and temporal discretisation. Compared to a fixed cantilever, the introduction of the dynamic support in both systems is shown to yield lower flutter-onset flow speeds and for the spring-mounted cantilever a reduction of the order of the mode that yields the critical flow speed; these effects would be desirable for energy harvesting applications. 2014 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33609 restricted
spellingShingle Howell, R.
Lucey, Anthony
19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
title 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
title_full 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
title_fullStr 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
title_full_unstemmed 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
title_short 19th Australasian fluid mechanics conference: Flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
title_sort 19th australasian fluid mechanics conference: flow-induced structural instabilities via spring-mounted lifting flexible plates in a uniform flow for energy harvesting
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33609