energy generation using vortex

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Vortex EnergyEnergy Harvesting from natural

flowsClean | Efficient | Powerful 

Lavish Ordia

Lavish Ordia A. Venugopal Department of Mechanical Engineering,

IIT Bombay

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Wonder Why so?

Fluttering of flag

Lavish Ordia

INDIA

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

3Lavish Ordia

Tacoma Narrows Bridge CollapseWashington, 1940

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Vortex SheddingOscillating periodic flow that takes place when a fluid flows past a body

At certain velocities, depending on the size and shape of the body

Eg. Fluttering of Handkerchief, leaves of trees; swaying of trees and many more.

Lavish Ordia

Reference : Wikipedia

Ocean Current Map

Lavish Ordia

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Vortex Shedding• What if this could be used in a positive way?

• Enhancing this oscillations to generate energy

• Potential : Can meet 10% energy needs of US

• More than 50% of the U.S. population lives and works within 50 miles of the coastline

• Clean, Renewable, Powerful energy

• No turbines, propellers, or dams

• More powerful in water, smaller scale model can be used in air

• Can substitute windmills

World’s oceans contain an astounding amount of energy in the form of waves, currents, tidal flows and temperature gradientsLavish Ordia

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Impact!!

• Current World Wide Electricity generation

16,000 TWh

• The total accessible market, near population centers, is estimated at 4,000 TWh

Is it so clean???

Lavish Ordia

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Schematic of Energy generation

Demo | Video

Lavish Ordia

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Principle | Outline

• Three way coupling of energy

Lavish Ordia

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Another design

Lavish Ordia

Use of Piezoelectric materials

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Advantages

• Easy to set up

(compared to dams, wind mills, solar cells etc.)

• Less maintenance

• High energy density

• Low cost

• Renewable, no green house gas emissions

A lot of research required for commercialization

And optimizing the performance

May take more than a decade to come into practice

Lavish Ordia

Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay

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Thank You!

Lavish Ordia