GB2461918A - Vehicle mounted wind turbine - Google Patents

Abstract

A transverse flow wind turbine is mounted at bumper or radiator level, or on the roof, of a vehicle such as a car. The turbine may comprise four blades fixed to a central cross connector which is in turn connected to a shaft. The shaft may drive a generator or alternator to charge a battery. The blades may be disc shaped and concave, or they may have a semi-circular shape. A protective housing, shield or cowling may be provided which allows retreating blades of the turbine to be shielded from the wind, or alternatively all blades may be exposed to the wind. A plurality of the wind turbines may be located within a cylindrical housing which acts as an air intake duct. The wind turbine may alternatively be mounted on a building.

Description

Patent Application Wind Capture Device Submitted by Mr 1. Knight of Pedmore, Stourbridge West Midlands The Invention A device being in the form of novel shaped wind turbine blades encased in integral protective housing.

Definitions Where the context so admits herein reference to the male shall include the female, use of the singular shall include the plural and vice versa and the following words or expressions shall have the following meanings that is to say "Blades" shall mean "the blades of the device as indicated in the accompanying illustrations".

Connector" shall mean "that component connecting each of the blades to the central shaft as indicated in the accompanying illustrations" "Cross Connector" shall mean "the component in the shape of a cross connecting each of the blades to each other as indicated in the accompanying illustrations" "Shaft" shall mean uthe rod, spindle or shaft interfacing or connecting the device directly or indirectly to or with the alternator, generator, battery or other storage device"

General and Background

With increased interest in seeking natural or green' solutions to the provision and/or the storage of energy and to providing a small a carbon dioxide footprint as possible devices such as wind turbines have been offered which when attached to a battery, generator or alternator or other storage device prove sufficient to provide motive energy for use typically direct to the National Grid or for a vehicle running on wheels or tracks or by connection directly or indirectly to a generator, alternator or batteries.

There have been a series of patent applications both in the United Kingdom and abroad whereby novelty is claimed for a wind turbine device attached to a motor vehicle with the intention of supplying supplementary or primary motive power in the form of electricity.

In essence these applications consist of placing a windmill on top of a vehicle or at radiator or wheel arch level.

All such devices are inadequate to provide anything other than minimal supplementary power. In addition such devices fail in practice to resist wind velocity greater than ten or so kilometres per hour due to lack of robustness. The present invention seeks to avoid these disadvantages.

The Preferred Embodiment In the preferred embodiment the principal application of the present invention is of that of a three or four bladed turbine each blade being disk-shaped mounted in, on or under a vehicle such that when the vehicle is in motion the blades of the turbine will revolve and create electricity which may directly power the said vehicle or alternatively be stored in one or more batteries situate in the said vehicle.

There may be more than one such turbine in use in, on or under the vehicle.

The blades may be flat or concave i.e. soup-plate' shaped and so housed or cowelled as to permit only one such blade to be exposed to the air-intake such as to maximum wind speed and thereby to concentrate the effect of the wind with minimal loss of efficacy.

In addition or alternatively there may be more than one turbine attached and connected to different power outlets so as to achieve any or all of the targets.

In addition the power source for such vehicle may be switched such that the power accumulated by the device may be used either as a supplementary power source or as an alternative power source.

Existing vehicle-attached wind turbines are incapable of coping with speeds of up to the acknowledged maximum of 55 miles per hour.

The urtique features of the invention which help to solve the problem are as follows:.

I The relationship between the blades and the connector require a small as possible proportion as possible; the each connector being approximately equal to the radius of the blade.

2 The shape of the blades, disk-shaped or soup-plate shaped, as indicated by A' (fig i), is vital.

3 The novel shape of the housing and the positioning of the turbine within the housing is necessary to accommodate the shape of the blades and to concentrate the wind velocity to each blade at a time.

The turbine may be manufactured from metal, wood, fibre-glass, epoxy resin or plastic or any combination thereof.

In an alternative embodiment the device may be attached to a building and thus better able, than the traditional wind turbine design, to convert wind power to electricity.

The technology of converting wind to electricity by using a turbine is well known as is the conversion of stored or contemporaneously created electricity sufficient to power up and drive a vehicle or alternatively to supplement other methods of providing motive power, notably with the use of fossil fuels.

Illustrations The illustrations indicate the location of the turbine, the unique proportions and shape of the blades of the turbine and depict the alternative design of the housing thereof. None of the illustrations are to scale except Figure 2.

Figure 1 depicts the front of a motor vehicle with alternative possible air-intake locations Figure 2 depicts the device consisting of four disk-shaped blades connected to a shaft Figure 3 depicts an overhead view of device Figures 4, 5,6 and 7 depict overhead views of possible locations of a four-bladed device encased in the housing Figure 8 depicts (see-through) soup-plate' device with single blade of four exposed, showing adjacent home' for the blades which are not immediately exposed to the wind in the cylinder Figure 9 depicts diagram of two half-moon devices Figure 10 depicts (see-through) cylinder set in a horizontal plane showing half-moon device fully exposed to passage of air Figure 11 depicts half-moon device attached to shaft Figures 12, 13, 14 and 15 depict possible lay-out for half-moon device Figure 16 (Existing Technology) Traditional Wind Turbine