Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: birdzoom on 14/01/2011 22:11:34
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Hello,
I'm looking to hire someone to do me "Google Sketchup" model of some invention I might came up with.
This is an engine to collect wind energy.
It is quite simple. You have a balloon (actually a sphere, a very round ball...maybe up to 3,4 times the size of a human head...)
with a vertical stick! The balloon and stick will do any conical movements and oscillations as the wind
balances the light ball/balloon.
At the bottom, is the key for this engine. You have a dish on the horizontal but
this dish will follow the stick. That is, the stick is perpendicular
to the dish and the dish
will go down on accordingly to which direction the stick is moving in.
Then, you have a number of vertical air pumps (Im not sure if a better engine could be used)
I think six would be fine... not too few, not to much, so, a good distribution for a circumference.
(let me know what u think....) The pumps are pretty much like air
pumps used in bikes and they will pump air that can lift a weight or
something. Lifting a weight seems a good way to store energy. Better than batteries, I guess...
I find it crucial that somehow it is clearly shown how the compressed air created by the
pumps will be being used to store energy.
I'm not sure if it is a good idea that the pumps are linked or if each
should be separated and pressurizing air separately from the others.I think separated seems a better choice.
This is just a brief description. If needed I can draw something on
paper but I'm not sure if that would be a great help because I'm not a
great artist.
To sum up, a ball/balloon moves freely in the air constrained only by the vertical
stick that will "bend" the dish along as it is all a single piece all together.
I need to show very well the small air pumps in the model(as if they were bike pumps
or something). It has to be very clear how the pumps are so that you
really understand why they will force the air to become compressed or force weights to be
lifted.
Please let me know if you come up with anything better and/or if this
is clear enough. English in not my native We can talk on skype also (My skype username is "bicomplex").
I would like to have the greater detail in the pumps and the lifting of weights, because they are
crucial to my invention, but let me know what you think.
Best regards,
birdzoom
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First of all...
If you are anticipating a patent, then don't publish it in an open forum.
As I understand it, you're wanting to collect the energy from wind gusts rather than that of a steady blowing wind, like a tree swaying in the wind. I think I've heard a discussion before, but don't remember hearing if it was actually implemented.
The pneumatic/hydraulic mechanism sounds a little complicated, but I see your goal of a simple energy storage method. Double acting pumps would reduce the pump need in half. I suppose if you are just storing the energy for a single house, then some kind of a weight system might be adequate, but a single small circus balloon wouldn't be sufficient either.
You might also consider whether you will be able to effectively capture energy from both light gusts and heavy gusts.
Should it be self-centering? Actually, I'm not quite sure how you described the fulcrum. Ball & socket? At the bottom, or in the middle?
Have you considered Piezoelectric? They often do high volts, low amps which is a little problematic, but the design is very simple, and it would make for spectacular displays.
As far as drawing it up.
I'm not sure you will find anybody willing to do the grunt work for free.
Standard drafting plans would be a side view and vertical view, and you should be able to throw it together pretty quickly.
3-D with vanishing points would be easiest done with some kind of CAD software, although I've done it by hand long ago, but I think only with square structures.
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Here is an article about a "tree generator". Although the original design appears to be making a direct electric generator. Has it already been patented? [xx(]
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,139093.0.html
This is a discussion about hydraulic generation. Unfortunately the original link has been lost. But, the responses were quite critical.
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,136708.0.html
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I'd try to avoid compressing air. You'll lose a lot of energy in the form of heat.
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Thanks for the answers and advice.
I will post a 3D model made with Google Sketchup in a few days.
I reckon that compressing air is not a good solution. I will prob use
the up-down movements converted into circular motion but I keep thinking
lifting weights in a cumulative way, is a good way to store energy.
I remember having a "roller coaster" toy that had a very simple way of lifting
the cars, they would go along a metal spiral that was just rounding like a uncorking tool.
It used batteries. As the spiral moved along itself the cars would go up step by step in a
very continuous way.
The same way I could have a silo with an internal spiral, or something, to make little weights
be lifted. Im just not sure how the spiral moving just around itself could do that... hmmm...
Anyway, here is some animation, one year old, (I've been improving these ideas).
It won't hurt :) hehe
http://megaswf.com/simple_serve/99490/
You can have a laugh 'cos actually no weight would lift that way... but the idea was that little weights would lift and fall into greater containers that would end up being a lot of weight.
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If you want to lift something for energy storage, you could pump water into an elevated tank, then release the water into a low level turbine to produce electricty when required.
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Cute animation.
I was thinking of a rigid stick tied to the balloon and horizontally mounted pumps.. but either way would work in a similar fashion. The vertical pumps might be easier to mount. You probably wouldn't need more than 4.
You would have to deal with flexible attachments, and changes in distance between the attachments due to angles.
Geezer,
One of the differences between the air cylinder lifting a weight vs a water tank.
The higher the level of the water, the more pressure it takes to fill the tank.
With air, you would have a constant pressure as the weight is lifted. However, a compressible gas could be problematic.
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I'm not sure what do you mean by "flexible attachments, and changes in distance between the attachments due to angles." Do you mean the units have to be modular and flexible attachments so that a massively deployment could be done? What angles?
Why you think 4 would be enough. Wouldn't that make a cumbersome squared moving dish? Six seems more harmonically to me, as it fits the circle quite naturally and in a simple fashion.
But all these things should be empirically tested for different regions/altitudes.
Having several of them with bigger and smaller sticks and so... to determine the ideal measures.
Quite like in a wind tunnel to boost vehicles performance.... stats would soon tell us...
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Geezer,
One of the differences between the air cylinder lifting a weight vs a water tank.
The higher the level of the water, the more pressure it takes to fill the tank.
With air, you would have a constant pressure as the weight is lifted. However, a compressible gas could be problematic.
True, but if the tank has a large surface area rather than depth, and it is at a significant height above the pump, the increase in pressure as it fills will be small.
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My idea is to have this unit as modular as possible so that massive deployment becomes feasible.
Water is a scarce resource. At the same time water in our pipes already has pressure, is that water from the company that you have in mind to be used? Or water from sea? If from sea would my modular units need to be in a special place like near the sea?