Investigation of concurrent energy harvesting from ambient vibrations and wind using a single piezoelectric generator

In this letter, a single vibratory energy harvester integrated with an airfoil is proposed to concurrently harness energy from ambient vibrations and wind. In terms of its transduction capabilities and power density, the integrated device is shown to have a superior performance under the combined loading when compared to utilizing two separate devices to harvest energy independently from the two available energy sources. Even below its flutter speed, the proposed device was able to provide 2.5 times the power obtained using two separate harvesters.