Problem: Veryst Engineering provides energy harvesting design solutions for a variety of industries.  One example is harvesting energy from constant, low speed ocean floor currents to power ocean floor sensors. Such sensors are used in naval applications, environmental monitoring, earthquake monitoring and oil exploration.

Approach: Place a bluff body in the flow path to generate an alternating train of vortices that is then directed to an energy conversion device.  The design is simple, uses basic off-the-shelf components, and can be encapsulated to eliminate the need for moving shafts and reduce biofouling.

Solution: Multiphysics simulation of this design predicted the available energy for conversion and optimized this energy harvesting device.

Velocity profile around bluff body

Vane showing laminar Karman vortex street