2/27/2009 PERMALINK
Vortex vibrations tapped for energy capture from water flows The phenomenon of Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV), which was first observed 500 years ago by Leonardo DaVinci, can be used to efficently capture energy from ocean and stream water flows. For decades, engineers have been trying to prevent VIV from damaging offshore equipment and structures. Navy funded research at the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the University of Michigan has found that by maximizing and exploiting VIV rather than spoiling and preventing it, an ocean engineering problem can be transformed into a device able to extract energy from the ocean much more efficiently than today's generators using wave motion ... more