Control of Galloping Oscillations Through Energy Harvesting Absorber

In the present study, we combine the control strategy and energy harvesting performance of a square cylinder subjected to galloping vibrations, by internally installing a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass. The piezoelectric sheets are attached to the beam to convert the galloping oscillations of the big cylinder into electrical energy from the small cantilever structure. The coupled nonlinear representative model is developed by employing the Euler–Lagrange principle and implementing the Galerkin discretization. The impacts of the electrical load resistance on the coupled frequencies and coupled damping of both structures as well as the onset speed of galloping of the square cylinder are analyzed. The results show that there exists an optimal load resistance that maximizes the onset speed of galloping due to the largest coupled damping ratio. What’s more, the effects of the load resistance on controlling the displacement of the big cylinder and the level of harvested power produced from the small energy harvester are determined. It is indicated that with appropriate parameter values, the displacement of square cylinder can be effectively controlled, and at the same time high values of harvester power can be obtained.