Bionic Seal Whisker Based on Piezoelectric Nanogenerator for Vortex Perception

Abstract

In order to perceive the vortex in the flow field environment and obtain the disturbance frequency of the vortex, a vortex sensor based on the seal whisker was proposed by imitating the mechanism of the seal whisker to perceive and track prey. The designed bionic seal whisker imitates the unique biological structure of seal whiskers and combines the principle of piezoelectric nanogenerators. The bionic seal whisker uses polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the main material, and a piezoelectric perceiving unit made of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) is encapsulated at the bottom. By comparing and analyzing simulation data with experimental data, the results indicate that the bionic seal whiskers have great vortex perception effects and great potential in underwater flow field vortex perception.