Little Eddies and Small Vibrations: Untapped Sources for Energy Harvesting in Aquatic Environments

该研究计划解决了从小规模水生系统中提取可用能量的巨大挑战。该计划设想建立对海洋环境中能量清除模式的频谱的基本理解，以开发自我维持的多功能海洋微传感器。该项目旨在利用环境机械振动和相干流体流动结构进行能量收集。水生环境中的机械振动发生在大量的人造和自然结构中，以及动物游泳中。相干流体结构，如卡门涡街和湍流涡流，通常存在于水生环境中，并且是由于各种机制，包括从固定的浸没体的流动分离，热和压力梯度，以及来自游泳动物的动量传递。实用性要求用于水下应用的采集器重量轻，需要小的力和低频率来引起运动，产生足够的电力来运行一组微型设备，并在潮湿条件下操作。离子聚合物金属复合材料（IPMCs）满足所有这些要求，因此被选为本研究。

This research program addresses the grand challenge of extracting usable energy from small-scale aquatic systems. This program envisions establishing a fundamental understanding of the spectrum of energy scavenging modalities in marine environments towards the development of self-sustained multifunctional marine microsensors. This project seeks to exploit ambient mechanical vibrations and coherent fluid flow structures for energy harvesting. Mechanical vibrations in aquatic environments occur in a vast array of both man-made and natural structures, as well as in animal swimming. Coherent fluid structures, such as Karman vortex streets and turbulent eddies, are generally present in aquatic environments and are due to a variety of mechanisms, including flow separation from fixed immersed bodies, thermal and pressure gradients, and momentum transfer from swimming animals. Practicality dictates that harvesters for underwater applications be lightweight, require small forces and low frequencies to elicit motion, produce sufficient electrical power to run a set of microdevices, and operate in wet conditions. Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMCs) meet all of these requirements and are thus selected for this study.