Vortex Induced Vibrations for Energy Collection

First off, I would like to congratulate U of M for beating Notre Dame....such a great game. Once we tighten up our holes in the middle and work on our safeties a bit, our defense could be pretty good.

Anyways, back to business. I stumbled upon an interesting article today relating to Vortex Induced Vibrations. This is a project going on in the U of M naval engineering department (http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/html/technology.html). For most applications, these vibrations are meant to be minimized. However, for this application, the vibrations are amplified, and harvested as an alternative energy source.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcyM3c5ylSU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evortexhydroenergy%2Ecom%2Fhtml%2Ftechnology%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

This energy source mimics how a school of fish moves through the ocean. As illustrated in the picture above (from the vortexhydroenergy website), what happens is when the current (of a much larger body) hits a object (o a smaller body) it changes the flow of water creating vortexes. Vortexes are created and shedded depending upon the movement of the body. Vortexes are shedded on the downside of their motion. So when a body is pushed from north to south, the south end of the body will have no vortex whereas the north end of the body will have a vortex. This alternating motion creates an oscillation and its energy can be harvested.