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flapping membrane

To perform long endurance military missions, small, unattended sensors must generate and harvest power from their surroundings. Experiments have shown that a flexible membrane, made from piezoelectric material, can be excited in a flag-like fashion by the von Karman vortex street forming behind a bluff body to produce power to trickle charge a battery. The image shows the vortical structures exciting the membrane.

The work was sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Reference:

Allen, J. J. & Smits, A. J. Energy Harvesting Eel. Journal of Fluids and Structures 15 2001, pp 629-640

The copyright on these images is held by the contributors. Permission must be sought before using them in any way.