The Influence of Different Mass Ratios on Vortex-Induced Vibration Energy Extraction of Four Cylinder Arrays

Abstract

Currently, there is a growing demand for renewable energy harnessed from fluid dynamics within the oil and gas industry. The surge in demand has propelled electricity to become a vital and irreplaceable form of universal energy worldwide. Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIV) energy harvesting shows great potential as a technology for capturing energy from flowing bodies of water. The purpose of this research is to investigate the numerical aspect of VIV in rigid circular cylinders with the intention of capturing renewable energy from the sea. The investigation employs a Vortex-Induced Vibration Aquatic Clean Energy (VIVACE) converter to analyze the vibration characteristics of densely packed cylinders featuring varying mass ratios (m*) at both minimum and maximum values. Another purpose of the study is to investigate the effect that m* has on the performance of a VIV converter that is comprised of four cylinders positioned in a staggered pattern. For the purpose of analyzing power conversion in the VIV energy converter model across a wide range of mass ratios (from 2.36 to 12.96), simulations are carried out with a Reynolds number of 82000. The findings indicate that the highest converted power reaches a peak of 7.48 W with a mass ratio of 2.36, whereas a greater mass ratio of 12.96 results in only 4.33. The study highlights the substantial influence of mass ratios on the extraction of power output from VIV. The results essentially offer crucial information about the optimum mass ratio in closed four cylinder arrays to design VIV energy harvesting to produce clean and renewable energy sources.