Optimal Control of A Broadband Vortex-Induced Vibration Energy Harvester
Optimal Control of A Broadband Vortex-Induced Vibration Energy Harvester
Optimal Control of A Broadband Vortex-Induced Vibration Energy Harvester
harvester journals.sagepub.com/home/jim
E Azadi Yazdi
Abstract
A vortex-induced vibration energy harvester consists of a relatively long cylinder mounted on a flexible structure. In a
flow field, the periodically shedding vortices induce transverse vibrations in the cylinder that is converted to electricity
by means of piezoelectric generators. In most vortex-induced vibration harvesters, the output power is considerable
only in a narrow band around the wind speed where the vortex shedding frequency matches the natural frequency of
the structure. To overcome this limitation, a tuned mass mechanism is employed in the proposed vortex-induced vibra-
tion energy harvester that can change the natural frequency of the turbine to match the vortex shedding frequency in a
broad band of wind speeds. The tuned mass mechanism should work in close cooperation with the piezoelectric genera-
tors to maximize the electric power of the turbine. To this end, a nonlinear piezoaeroelastic model of the system is
derived, and a model predictive control technique is formulated to find the optimal control inputs for the tuned mass
actuator and the piezoelectric generators. Results of numeric simulations confirmed that the tuned mass mechanism not
only increases the velocity band over which the turbine is effective but also increases the peak power output of the tur-
bine by 294%.
Keywords
Model predictive control, optimal control, vortex-induced vibrations, tuned mass mechanism, lock-in phenomenon
research (see, e.g., Abdelkefi et al., 2012a; Akaydin the electric circuit and control algorithm. Most of the
et al., 2012; Hasheminejad et al., 2017) that the VIV studies in VIV energy harvesters used a proportional
power generation is considerable when the vortex shed- controller in the form of a constant resistive electrical
ding frequency is close to the structural natural fre- load (see, e.g., Abdelkefi et al., 2012b; Dai et al.,
quency, that is known as the lock-in phenomenon. The 2014a). The achievable efficiency is very low with con-
vortex shedding frequency for bodies with circular stant resistive loads; in various studies a typical aero-
cross-sections depends linearly on the free-stream wind mechanical efficiency of less than 5% was reported for
speed (Bishop and Hassan, 1964). As the wind speed this approach. It was shown in Vicente-Ludlam et al.
deviates from the one that corresponds to the lock-in (2014) that there exists a theoretical limit on the maxi-
phenomenon, the power generation of the harvester mum achievable efficiency by a constant resistive load.
drops significantly (Abdelkefi et al., 2012a, 2012c; Meliga et al. (2011) proposed a dissipative velocity
Akaydin et al., 2012; Chizfahm et al., 2018). Therefore, feedback control strategy for an flexibly supported
the energy generation of the VIV energy harvesters in cylinder. The main objective of the dissipative velocity
general, and the VIV energy harvesters in particular, is feedback controller is to suppress the vibrations of the
significant only in a narrow band of the wind speeds cylinder, meanwhile it produces a small amount of
around the lock-in wind speed. energy. An adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode controller was
Among several research that reported the degrada- developed in Hasheminejad et al. (2014, 2017) for elas-
tion of the VIV power generation and efficiency outside tically mounted cylinders with circular and elliptical
the lock-in region, only a few have proposed a solution cross-sections. The control objective was VIV suppres-
to overcome this limitation. The efficiency improving sion; however, the energy generation was also studied.
solutions for VIV energy harvesters can be grouped in The maximum achievable aero-mechanical efficiency
four categories: (1) optimizing the geometric shape and was reported to be 5%. Recently, Azadi Yazdi (2018)
orientation of the blunt body, (2) optimizing the electric proposed a nonlinear model predictive control (MPC)
circuit and control algorithm, (3) using nonlinear flex- technique that solely aims to maximize the power out-
ible support structures, and (4) using multiple sources put of a VIV energy harvester. It was shown that the
of kinetic energy. nonlinear MPC technique outperforms the conven-
Several efficiency improving solutions are focused on tional constant resistive load technique by achieving a
finding the optimal shape and orientation of the blunt maximum aero-mechanical efficiency of 32%.
body, because the vortex formation regime depends In the third approach for increasing the power out-
strongly on the geometry of the blunt body. In Kluger put of VIV energy harvesters, the flexible support struc-
et al. (2013), the geometric parameters of the blunt tures were modified. In Pan and Dai (2018), a
body are optimized to achieve the minimum lock-in composite laminate with a stacking sequence design
wind speed, enhance the amplitude of the VIV beyond was proposed for the support structure of a VIV energy
the lock-in wind speed, and minimize amplitude hyster- harvester. It was shown through numerical simulations
esis for varying wind speeds. In Yang et al. (2013), the that the natural frequency of the VIV harvester with
VIVs of blunt bodies of cross-sectional square, rectan- the stacking sequence support can be adjusted to lower
gle, triangle, and D-shape were compared. It was frequency ranges. In Zhang et al. (2017), a support
observed in the experiments that the square-sectioned structure with a nonlinear restoring force was intro-
blunt body outperforms other geometric shapes. Hu duced for a VIV energy harvester. Two repulsive mag-
et al. (2018) investigated the performance of a circular nets were attached on the lower and higher ends of a
cylinder VIV energy harvester with two small-size rod circular cylinder which is subjected to the wind.
attachments. The results of experiments showed that Experimental results confirmed the improvements in
triangular rods significantly extended the lock-in region the performance of the VIV energy harvesting system,
of the VIV energy harvester. Ding et al. (2015) used both in the width of the synchronization region and in
two-dimensional (2D) unsteady computational fluid the level of the harvested power, compared to the clas-
dynamics (CFD) simulations to study the energy gener- sical configuration.
ation of a cylinder with various cross-sectional shapes The last approach to improve the output power of
including square, Q-trapezoid, and triangular sections. the VIV energy harvesters is to use multiple sources of
It was concluded that the Q-trapezoid section exhibits kinetic energy. In Bibo and Daqaq (2013), a VIV har-
larger VIVs than the other sections. In conclusion, most vester was integrated with a vibratory harvester to con-
of the studies suggested non-axisymmetric geometries currently extract energy from wind and base vibrations.
for the blunt body. Although non-axisymmetric blunt The performance of the proposed device was shown to
bodies may improve the efficiency of the VIV energy be high under the combined loading. In Zhao and Yang
harvesters, unlike axisymmetric blunt bodies, their effi- (2018), a mechanical stopper is introduced into a VIV
ciencies are highly sensitive to the air flow direction. harvester in order to concurrently harvest energy from
Another approach to improve the power generation ambient vibrations and wind. In general, significant
and efficiency of VIV energy harvesters is to optimize improvement in the level of the output power can be
Azadi Yazdi 139
X
et al. (2018) for more details on the aero-elastic model Y ðx, tÞ = fi ð xÞyi ðtÞ ð3Þ
of the turbine.
where fi (x) is the ith mode shape, and yi (t) is the ith
modal response factor. The kinetic energy of the stand
2.1. Aerodynamic force model and the piezoelectric patches is given by
The amplitude of the VIVs, and consequently the power ð ð
2 2
transmitted to the structure, is considerable when the 2T1 = rs As Y ðx, tÞdx + rp Ap Y_ ðx, tÞdx
_
vortices are shed at a frequency close to the natural fre- Ls Lp
quency of the flexible structure, which is known as the XX ð
lock-in phenomenon. One of the most important chal- = r s As y_ i ðtÞ_yj ðtÞ fi ð xÞfj ð xÞdx
lenges in modeling of the VIV is finding an appropriate i j
Ls
expression for vortex-induced forces that captures the XX ð X
main dynamic features of the in VIV such as the lock-in + r p Ap y_ i ðtÞ_yj ðtÞ fi ð xÞfj ð xÞdx = Mi y_ 2i ðtÞ
phenomenon. Numerous aerodynamic force expres- i j i
Lp
sions have been proposed for an oscillatory cylinder in ð4Þ
the past few decades (Gabbai and Benaroya, 2005). A
widely used model for the aerodynamic lift on an oscil- where rs and rp are the mass densities, As and Ap are
latory cylinder in a 2D flow is the semiempirical wake the cross-sectional areas, Ls and Lp are the lengths, ssx
oscillator model (Bishop and Hassan, 1964). In this and sPx are the stresses in the x-direction, and esx and ePx
article, since the mast is relatively long, we may assume are the strains in the x-direction of the stand and the
a 2D flow for each slice of the mast (Olinger, 1998). Ðpiezoelectric substrates,
Ð Lp 2 respectively, and Mi =
Ls 2
According to the wake oscillator model, at a time t, the 0 f i (x)A s r s dx + 0 fi (x)Ap rp dx is the generalized
lift coefficient CL (x, t) of a slice of the mast at a height x mass of the ith mode.
is defined as (Bishop and Hassan, 1964) The potential energy of the stand and the piezoelec-
tric patches is given by
2a _
CL ðx, tÞ = Qðx, tÞ Y ðx, tÞ ð1Þ ð ð ð
Dvs
2U1 = ssx esx d
V+ spx epx d
V E3 D3 d
V ð5Þ
where Q(x, t) is the excitation component, Y_ (x, t) is the
Vs
Vp
Vp
transverse velocity, a is an empirical constant deter-
mined through experiments, vs :¼ 2pSU0 =D is the vor- where V s is the volume of the stand,
V p is the volume
tex shedding frequency, S is the Strouhal number of the piezoelectric, E3 and D3 are, respectively, the elec-
defined in Skop and Balasubramanian (1997), U0 is the tric field and the electric displacement in the piezoelec-
free-stream air speed, and D is the diameter of the mast. tric patches. The strains and stresses in the stand and
In equation (1), the excitation component, Q(x, t), satis- piezoelectric substrates are given by
fies the nonlinear van der Pol oscillator
∂2 Y ðx, tÞ
esx = epx = y ð6Þ
€ ðx, tÞ vs G C 2 4Q2 ðx, tÞ Q_ ðx, tÞ
Q ∂x2
L0
2 vs F _ ssx = Es esx ð7Þ
+ vs Qðx, tÞ = Y ðx, tÞ ð2Þ
D spx = Ep epx d31 E3 ð8Þ
where G and F are empirical constants (Skop and
Balasubramanian, 1997) evaluated from experiments. where Es and Ep are Young’s moduli of the stand and
For stationary cylinders, the right-hand side of equa- piezoelectric layers at constant electric field, and d31 is
tion (2) vanishes; therefore, the solution to the afore- the strain coefficient of the piezoelectric patch. The elec-
mentioned equation is Q = CL0 sinvs t. This means that tric displacement is defined as
CL0 is the amplitude of the fluctuating lift coefficient on
D3 = Ep d31 epx + e33 E3 = e31 epx + e33 E3 ð9Þ
a stationary cylinder.
where e33 is the permittivity component at constant
strain, and e31 = Ep d31 is the stress coefficient of the
2.2. Piezoelastic model piezoelectric patch.
To obtain the piezoelastic model, the stand is modeled as If the right and left layers of the piezoelectric sheet
a multilayered clamped-free beam of length Ls which is are connected in series, the electric fields have the same
partially covered by piezoelectric patches on both sides. value and direction in both layers. The value of this
To obtain a finite dimensional model, the normal modes electric field for a piezoelectric layer of thickness tp is
expression is used for the deflection of the stand as given by (Dai et al., 2014b)
Azadi Yazdi 141
" #
V ðtÞ 1 ∂Y ðLs , tÞ 2
E3 = ð10Þ T2 = mTM x_ 2TM ðtÞ + + xTM ðtÞu_ m ðtÞ
2tp 2 ∂t
where V (t) is the generated voltage across the series ð15Þ
connection of the piezoelectric patches. Therefore, the U2 = mTM gxTM ðtÞ ð16Þ
potential energy is given by
where mTM is the mass of the tuned mass, and g is the
Ap e33 2 X gravitational constant.
2U1 = V ðt Þ + Ki y2i ðtÞ + Gi yi ðtÞV ðtÞ ð11Þ
2tp i
Now, defining the Lagrangian as L = T1 + The dynamic model equations (23) to (25) can be
T2 U1 U2 , Euler–Lagrange principle can be used in written in state-space form as
the ~q :¼ (yi , X , xTM ) generalized coordinates, with
X_ = V , to obtain the piezoaeroelastic model of the VIV x_ ðtÞ = f ðxðtÞ, vðtÞÞ + BuðtÞ ð32Þ
energy harvester
where x(t) :¼ ½ y y_ V xTM x_ TM q q_ T is the
∂ ∂L ∂L = dW state vector, v(t) :¼ ½ U0 g T is the exogenous input
ð22Þ
q_i ∂~
∂t ∂~ qi d~
qi vector that consists of the wind speed and the gravita-
tional constant, u(t) :¼ ½ i FTM T is the control input
For simplicity and without loss of generality, we only
vector that consists of the piezoelectric control
consider the first mode of the stand. From equations
current and the tuned mass actuator force, and the
(2) and (22), the piezoaeroelastic equations are given by
vector f (x(t), v(t)) and matrix B are determined
~ y + 2mTM ½uðLs Þ + xTM u0 ðLs Þu0 ðLs Þ_xTM y_ + from equations (23) to (25). The dynamic model can be
M€
linearized around an operating point x0 =
2a ~ gV = Gq
G_y + Ky ð23Þ ½ 0 0 0 x0TM 0 q0 0 T as
Dvs
p V_ + g y_ = iðtÞ
C ð24Þ x_ ðtÞ = Ac xðtÞ + Bc1 uðtÞ + Bc2 vðtÞ ð33Þ
kX
+N In conclusion, the MPC design problem can be
J2 ðk Þ :¼ yj, 1 yj, 2 ð50Þ stated as
j=k +1
Table 1. Properties of the VIV energy harvester and the MPC scheme.
Mast Lm Length 5m
D Outer diameter 0:6 m
t Thickness 0:002 m
rm Mass density 1040 kg=m3
mTM Tuned mass 10 kg
Stand Ls Length 1m
ws Width 0:017 m
ts Thickness 0:017 m
rs Mass density 2730 kg=m3
Es Young’s modulus 90 GPa
Piezoelectric Lp Length 0:015 m
wp Width 0:017 m
tp Thickness 0:0034 m
e33 Permittivity at constant strain 13:28 nCm1
d31 Strain coefficient 190 pm V1
P
C Capacitance 20:3 nF
rp Mass density 7800 kg=m3
Ep Young’s modulus 66 GPa
Aerodynamic CL0 Lift coefficient of stationary cylinder 0.28
ra Air density 1:22 kg=m3
F van der Pol’s empirical constants 0.42
G van der Pol’s empirical constants 0.028
S Strouhal number 0.21
MPC h Sampling time 0:02 s
T Optimization horizon 0:1 s
N Number of samples 5
Odes Desired non-dimensional frequency 1.2
Figure 5. The optimal control current through piezoelectric Figure 8. The lock-in wind speed of the VIV energy harvester
patches of the VIV energy harvester without the TMM equipped versus the position of the tuned mass for mTM = 1, 10, and
with the MPC scheme at U0 = 1:6 m=s. 50 kg.
Figure 10. The tuned mass position at U0 = 1:6 m=s. Figure 13. The optimal control force of the tuned mass
actuator at U0 = 1:6 m=s.
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575–616. Appendix 1
Hasheminejad SM, Rabiee AH and Jarrahi M (2017) Semi-
active vortex induced vibration control of an elastic ellipti- Consider the following prediction vector notation for
cal cylinder with energy regeneration capability. Interna- states, inputs, and outputs as
tional Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics 17(9):
T
1750107. Xk = xTk + 1 , xTk + 2 , . . . , xTk + N ð65Þ
Hasheminejad SM, Rabiee AH, Jarrahi M, et al. (2014)
Active vortex-induced vibration control of a circular cylin- T
DUk = DuTk , DuTk + 1 , . . . , DuTk + N1 ð66Þ
der at low Reynolds numbers using an adaptive fuzzy slid-
ing mode controller. Journal of Fluids and Structures 50: T
49–65. DVk = DvTk , DvTk + 1 , . . . , DvTk + N1 ð67Þ
Hu G, Tse KT, Wei M, et al. (2018) Experimental investiga- T
tion on the efficiency of circular cylinder-based wind Yk = yTk , yTk + 1 , . . . , yTk + N 1 ð68Þ
Azadi Yazdi 151
Based on the state-space model (equation (6)), the 1
Qi = diag Pi , Pi , . . . , Pi ð76Þ
values of the future state variables are calculated 2
sequentially using the set of previous and future control
and diagfa1 , . . . , an g is a diagonal matrix whose diago-
parameters as
nal entries are a1 , . . . , an , and P1 , P2 , P3 , P4 2 Rny 3 ny
xk + 1jk = Axk + B1 Duk + B2 Dvk are given by
xk + 2jk = Axk + 1jk + B1 Duk + 1 + B2 Dvk + 1 P1 = diagf0, 0, 1, 0g ð77Þ
2
= A xk + AB1 Duk + B1 Duk + 1 + AB2 Dvk + B2 Dvk + 1 2 3
0 1 0 0
.. 61 0 0 07
. P2 = 6
40 0 0 05
7 ð78Þ
ð69Þ 0 0 0 0
Using yk = Cxk and equation (24), the predicted vec- Consequently, the MPC cost function (12) is given
tors of output can be written as by
kX
+N
1 T Cs T x xk T v DV ł T u DU ł Cs T x xk T v DV
J1 ðk Þ = y2j, 3 = Y Q1 Yk ð74Þ ð84Þ
j=k +1
2 k
where Cs 2 R7N is defined as
kX
+N 1
J2 ðk Þ = y, 3 yj, 2 = YTk Q2 Yk ð75Þ
j=k +1
2 Cs = ½cs, 1 , cs, 2 , cs, 3 , cs, 4 , cs, 5 , cs, 6 , cs, 7 , cs, 1 , . . . , cs, 7 T
ð85Þ
where Qi 2 Rny N 3 ny N is a block diagonal matrix defined
as