What if you could generate hydroelectric power without turbines, propellers or dams—but by simply harnessing the current from the water the generator is placed in? According to Ann Arbor, MI-based startup Vortex Hydro Energy, thanks to a product developed by University of Michigan professor Michael Bernitsas, you can.
Last decade, Bernitsas was attempting to build a better mousetrap, so to speak, but he was stymied by an enemy common to researchers who seek to harness water’s power: Vortex Induced Vibrations, or VIV.
VIV is a phenomenon where vortices—or whirling masses of water—are formed and shed on the downstream side of rounded objects in a fluid current. The vortex shedding alternates from one side of a body to the other, creating a pressure imbalance that causes the body to move back and forth, not unlike a stop sign vibrating on a windy day. Since it was first observed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1504, engineers have been trying to understand VIV and keep its destructive forces away from mechanical, marine, offshore, and nuclear engineering applications.
But Bernitsas approached it from another angle: What if he could somehow utilize and control VIV’s destructive power? His research took an abrupt turn, and it wasn’t long before Vortex Hydro Energy was hard at work commercializing Bernitsas’ invention: the VIVACE converter.
“Our device has just two major components,” says Voretx Hydro Energy CEO Gus Simiao (pictured above) about the prototype his
