Airflow energy harvesting with high wind velocities for industrial applications

Abstract

An airflow energy harvester capable of harvesting energy from vortices at high speed is presented in this paper. The airflow energy harvester is implemented using a modified helical Savonius turbine and an electromagnetic generator. A power management module with maximum power point finding capability is used to manage the harvested energy and convert the low voltage magnitude from the generator to a usable level for wireless sensors. The airflow energy harvester is characterized using vortex generated by air hitting a plate in a wind tunnel. By using an aircraft environment with wind speed of 18 m/s as case study, the output power of the airflow energy harvester is measured to be 140 mW. The maximum power point finding circuit operates based on open-circuit voltage of the airflow energy harvester. It is implemented using low power analogue circuit with a quiescent current of 790 nA. The maximum power point finding efficiency is 94.21 to 99.72 % for wind speed between 10 to 18 m/s.