RU2703098C1 - Soft-balloon aeroenergostat - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: power engineering.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to wind-driven power plants, radial-blade turbines of which have axes of rotation coinciding with direction of wind. Soft-balloon aeroenergostat comprises aeronautical module of deltoid contour in horizontal projection, consisting of arched-bridge truss perpendicular to direction of wind, cylindrical cylinders filled with light gas, a wind-powered unit from a nacelle with an internal electric generator and a radial-vane turbine, whose axis of rotation, as well as longitudinal axes of the cylinders, coincides with the direction of the wind, vertically raised tail fins. Module is connected by flexible attachment elements with mooring assembly, in which there is concrete pedestal with central axis of rotation, around it rope-cable coil is rotated together with program-controlled drive mechanism. At least two parallel-spaced apart trusses are used in the module composition, which are connected as a whole to the bearing frame by rigid, transverse trusses, ribs, their lower edges resting on bent upper beams trusses arranged on them with equal pitch and formation of intercostal channels of the same profile and area in cross section. In the center of the channels there are sealed hose assemblies, on the sides and on top of which there are two soft gas-filled balloons, which are tightly covered from above with a composite body from elements that are attached to the upper edges of carcass ribs. Vertically raised tail unit is double-made, in the gap between them at the base there is a compressor, through the collector and automatic valves supplying compressed air into the hose from their leeward faces, and above installed is transmission mechanism of change of angle of attack to wind of axes of rotation of air-screw electric aero-engines of alternating thrust and opposite rotation, which are lifted above the set-up body of module and moved apart in symmetry from double tail fins.

EFFECT: invention is aimed at reduction of own weight of aeroenergostat aerostatic module, providing high strength and rigidity of module, sufficient for lifting to height of high-speed winds of massive wind-power unit of large industrial power.

1 cl, 4 dwg

Description

It is used to generate wind energy into electricity of large industrial capacities, achieved at the height of the high-speed layers of the surface atmosphere.

This device relates to wind turbines, radial-blade turbines which have rotation axes that coincide with the direction of the wind.

Negative factors have appeared in the world industrial wind industry, which are starting to restrain the development of this type of use of renewable energy sources. A study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Purdue University in the United States has been published in the scientific journal Energy by claiming that in the Northern Hemisphere, wind speed in the surface atmospheric layer slows down from 1979 to 2016, according to 67% of 1,000 weather stations. Due to the decrease in surface wind speed, its potential at a typical altitude of 100-120 meters of commercial wind turbines has suffered wind energy losses over the past four decades, most of all in Asia by 80%, then in Europe (50%) and North America (30%) . Unfortunately, this study did not establish the causes of the identified process, limiting itself to a number of assumptions. At the same time, the very fact of the joint participation of Chinese and American scientists in conducting meteorological monitoring deserves close attention, which is recognized by experts in the wind energy industry, including those who criticize the study for the weakness of the methodology and modeling flaws.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), in 2017-18 in the United States there was only the sixth result of an increase in the capacity of wind power plants in the entire history of the development of wind energy by ground-based systems. Close to this is the overall picture. Thus, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the decrease in installed capacities in the world in 2018 amounted to 3.6%, primarily due to a 37% drop in Europe, which is the worst result of the current decade. Ahead of the above information, the US Department of Energy made a statement about the near exhaustion of the country with strong lower winds favorable for investing in industrial wind power facilities and stations. In this regard, two areas of technological modernization were outlined: - creation of land-based wind energy turbines (AWE); - Implementation of the ATLANTIS program for the use of marine power systems (FOWT) at sea.

At the same time, taking into account that a number of private American and one Canadian companies have already conducted pilot tests on land of air-based wind power devices at an altitude of 300-600 meters, but could not develop the achieved successes to the level of industrial significance, limiting themselves to generating low power up to 15 kW, did not solve the main problem of high-altitude technologies, which consists in a large displacement of aeronautical and especially flying wind power units from ground anchor points with unacceptable costs of of raw materials, the Ministry handed over the solution to this problem to NASA, instructing the Agency to select AWE pilot projects with a capacity of at least 150 kW with minimized resource costs.

As regards the aircraft RES-generation power generation from the wind, they were practically abandoned on land and consider their use exclusively in the option of sea-based, where the territorial factor does not matter, but there is a limitation that makes them possible only on shallow shelves, which are not so a lot along the coastline of the oceans. For example, the depths along the Pacific coast of North and South America, on the eastern side of Japan, sharply go down by 100 meters or more, which obliges us to technically solve the problem of reliable attachment to a place of deployment above a water surface without building support on the seabed for flying wind turbines.

To a large extent, the land-based problem of air-based wind turbines is solved by a wind-driven aerostat (patent RU 2662101 C1, 12/11/2017), in the aeronautical module of which variable-thrust air-propelled electric motors are used, directed against the wind, which reduces the module’s displacement from the ground berthing site by 2- 3 times. Aircraft engines are fixed between the weathercocks on the leeward side of a spherical gas-filled shell, the shape of which is its advantage in view of the extremely minimized surface area and reduced consumption of fabric film material when creating an aerostatic wind generator. However, this shape of the shell has a large windage and, since the specific pressure on the surface at a wind speed of 25-30 m / s reaches 15-20 kgf / m2, aircraft engines consume too much energy, the consumption of which can be reduced by 5-6 times by applying longitudinally elongated streamlined shell.

The prototype of the invention is a balloon-floating wind turbine (patent RU 2602650 C1, 01/26/2016, PCT publication WO 2017131551, 08/03/2017), the positive buoyancy of the aeronautical module of which is created by gas-filled cylinders interconnected across the arch bridge bridge, perpendicular to the wind direction, so that form an upwardly curved structure having a delta-shaped contour in horizontal projection. The wind power unit is mounted on the horizontal beam of the farm and has a radial-blade turbine, whose axis of rotation coincides with the direction of the wind. The wind turbine has good streamlining and the ability to plan in air currents. However, the device does not involve the use of soft cylindrical shells, with which the module would have a lower dead weight. Due to the point-wise connection of the cylinders with the upper curved beam of a single truss, the fastening units operate under the weight of a wind power unit of industrial capacity with significant loads that can deform and even break the thin-walled shells of rigid cylinders. To obtain electric power from the wind of industrial capacities that require the use of multi-ton wind generators, such a structural-power circuit of the aeronautical module is completely inappropriate. The wind turbine does not have the means to solve the land problem of energy-based aeronautical apparatuses, and is not able to eliminate the large displacement of the high-altitude module from the ground berth unit.

In aeronautical apparatuses, the shape of soft and semi-rigid shells is finally formed and maintained, the tension and smoothness of the surface of the shells are achieved using internal sealed balloons, which, after filling them with compressed air, create excess pressure in the shells (patent US 20110101692 A, 05.05.2011; patent RU 2679060 C1 02/15/2018). However, the location of the ballonet inside the shells creates operational difficulties during their inspection, repair and replacement.

The essence of the technical solution consists in the fact that a strong supporting frame of at least two, perpendicular to the wind direction, parallel to the same row of arched bridge trusses, the upper curved beams of which are connected by rigid transverse trusses with ribs with the formation of intercostal channels, into which are inserted in pairs elements filled with light gas and covered with a stacked body, which allows the use of soft cylindrical cylinders of light fabric-textile material. The shape stability and surface smoothness of gas-filled cylinders is achieved without the use of internal balloons, and is supported by pneumatic hoses located below the pair of cylinders along the entire length and center of the said intercostal channels, which, when filled with compressed air, compress the outside of the cylinder shell, creating excessive pressure in them. Aeroenergostat can be adapted to use the system of optimal hovering of the aeronautical module directly above the ground mooring unit with stable verticality of tethered cable-cables due to the dislocation of air-screw electric aircraft engines of variable thrust and counter-rotation from the outside of a double vertically raised tail unit, inside of which is common for aircraft engines transmission mechanism.

The aim of the invention is to reduce the dead weight of the aeronautical aerostat module, while ensuring high strength and rigidity of the module, sufficient to lift high-speed winds of a massive wind power block of large industrial power.

This goal is achieved by the fact that as part of the aeronautical aeronautostat aeronautical module, a supporting frame is created, formed from at least two perpendicular wind directions, parallel spaced apart in one row, arch-bridge trusses connected by rigid transverse trusses with ribs resting lower edges on curved upper beams farms, being placed on them with equal pitch and the formation of intercostal canals of the same profile and area in cross section. Sealed pneumatic hoses are placed in the center of each intercostal canal, two soft gas-filled cylinders are placed on top and on the sides of them. The channels loaded in this way are covered by a stacked body, whose elements are connected to the upper edges of the frame ribs. A double vertically raised tail unit is provided at the rear of the module, in the center of which a compressor is fixed at the base, which supplies compressed air through the manifold and automatic valves to the pneumatic hose, and above is the transmission mechanism and, associated with it, raised above the module body of the module, symmetrically spaced apart both sides of the plumage are air-screw electric aircraft engines of variable thrust and oncoming rotation.

Aircraft engines can be connected to the computer processor control system by the optimal spatial fixation of the altitude module, consisting of wind pressure sensors on the module surface, a gear from the rotational actuator to the horizontal rotary beam of the mooring unit.

In FIG. 1 shows a view from the side of the wind of the aeronautical module of the soft-balloon aeronerostat; in Fig.2 is a view from the side of the wind on the land mooring unit of the same device; in FIG. 3 - aeronautical module in longitudinal section without a compressor and its manifold with automatic valves; in FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the same module without double tail unit with a transmission mechanism and aircraft engines.

The soft-balloon aeroelectric thermostat consists of an aeronautical module and a land mooring unit connected by tethered cable cables 1. In turn, the module includes at least two arch-bridge trusses 2, perpendicular to the direction of the wind, spaced apart and aligned in parallel. A wind power unit from a nacelle 3 is suspended from the bottom horizontal beam of the windward truss with an inside case electric generator and a radial-blade turbine 4, the axis of rotation of which coincides with the direction of the wind. The trusses and, connecting them, rigid ribs 5, transverse to the trusses, form the supporting frame of the module. In this case, the ribs with equal pitch are placed on the upper curved beams of the trusses, rest on them with their lower edges with the formation of intercostal channels of the same profile and area in cross section. Sealed pneumatic hoses 6 are laid along the entire length and center of each such channel, on the sides and on top of which are placed two soft gas-filled cylinders 7, which are tightly covered on top with elements of the typeset body 8 that are attached to the upper edges of the frame ribs. The frame ribs forming the central-axial intercostal canal on the leeward end with a double vertically raised tail unit 9, inside of which a compressor 10 is located at its base, supplying compressed air through the manifold 11 and automatic valves 12 to the airtight pneumatic hoses. There, above the compressor, there is a transmission mechanism 13 for changing the angle of attack of wind axes of rotation of variable-thrust and counter-rotation air-propelled electric aircraft engines 14, which are raised above the module body and are displaced symmetrically to both sides of the double tail. At the windward ends of the upper pair of gas-filled cylinders, wind pressure sensors 15 can be located, the same sensors 15.1 and 15.2 can be located on both peripheral lateral surfaces of the aeronautical module. In this case, the land mooring unit consists of a concrete pedestal 16 with a central axis 17, on which a horizontal swinging beam 18 is mounted, at the ends of which cable-cable coils 19 are installed, whose drive mechanisms 20 are programmatically controlled. Turns of the beam of the mooring unit are carried out by commands from the processor by the actuator 21 through the gear transmission 22.

Aeroenergostat works as follows. After assembling the device’s aeronautical module on the ground and constructing its land mooring unit, the soft balloons of the aeroelectrostat are filled with light gas until the module acquires positive buoyancy. Then the automatic valves open and the compressor is turned on, pumping compressed air through the manifold into airtight pneumatic hoses, which compress the walls of the cylinders and create excess pressure in them. Cylinders get the finished shape, tension and smoothness of the surface. Tether cables are simultaneously pushed from the reels of cable bays and the aeronautical module rises to a height of 300-600 meters to the level of winds having a speed of 25-30 m / s. The load due to the weight of the massive wind-driven block is evenly distributed, without creating local destructive stresses in the fabric-film casings of gas-filled gas cylinders. In the process of lifting, the module, due to its lateral windage and double tail, the ability of the beam of the mooring unit to rotate with the equipment on it, is deployed so that the axis of rotation of the radial-blade turbine coincides with the direction of the wind. At the same time, working aircraft engines do not allow the module to move away from the mooring unit, and the tethered cables lose the verticality of the overhang, cross and twist. High-speed wind pressure rotates the turbine, mechanical energy is supplied to an electric generator, where it is converted into industrial power electric energy sent via cable cables to a controller, battery and inverter, after which it is supplied to external consumers. A small part of the generated energy is returned and ensures the operation of the electrical equipment of the aeroelectric power station.

When the wind direction changes, the spatial reorientation of the module to new aerodynamic conditions begins to work. Thanks to the double tail unit and the connection with the horizontal swivel beam of the mooring unit, the module is independently reconstructed to the side wind. However, this may cause twisting of the attached cable cables. The likelihood of such an undesirable effect can be prevented by a system for forcing the beam of a land mooring unit. As soon as the installation processor receives signals that the wind pressure on the sensors installed on the windward ends of the upper pair of cylinders becomes equal to or less than the wind pressure on the sensors on one or the other side of the module, a computer command is sent to the actuator of the mooring unit, which through the gear the transmission rotates the beam of the same assembly with the equipment on it to a position perpendicular to the new wind direction.

The module of such an aeroenergostat has an acceptable lateral stability, which can be adjusted if necessary due to software control of the drive mechanisms of cable-cable bays. However, the aeronautical modules of all such devices have longitudinal instability, and the variable pressure of the wind on the turbine sways the stern of the balloons. This phenomenon is suppressed by aircraft engines controlled by a common transmission mechanism for changing the angle of attack on the wind. They can also be connected to a system of stable module hovering above the mooring unit.

Both individual basic and new module elements connecting arched bridge trusses to the supporting frame, as well as forming a stacked body, can be made of composite materials, partially in perforated design, which reduces their weight by 20-30 or more percent. The invention also contributes to the gearless transmission of the rotation of the turbine to the generator using a direct drive (Direct Drive), which reduces the weight of the wind power / unit and reduces the need for balloon gas by 35-40%.

Thus, a real aeroenergostat: - by creating a solid supporting frame and reducing the module's own weight due to the use of soft gas-filled cylinders, is capable of raising massive wind power units generating high industrial capacities of several thousand kW of electricity to high-speed atmospheric flows - has an operational advantage without using internal ballonets, - can successfully solve the land problem of air-based wind power devices, thereby improving prospects for their practical application.

Claims (2)

1. A soft-balloon aeroelectric thermostat, containing a horizontal projection of the deltoid-shaped aeronautical module, consisting of an arched bridge truss perpendicular to the wind direction, cylindrical cylinders filled with light gas, a nacelle wind power unit with an internal electric generator and a radial-vane turbine, whose rotation axis is the longitudinal axis of the cylinders, coincides with the direction of the wind, vertically raised tail unit, the module is connected by flexible harness elements to the mooring unit, in which has a concrete pedestal with a central axis of rotation, a cable-cable bay rotates around it together with a program-controlled drive mechanism, characterized in that at least two trusses are parallelly spaced in one row, connected in a single unit to the supporting frame rigid, transverse trusses, ribs, their lower edges resting on curved upper truss beams, placed on them with equal pitch and the formation of intercostal canals of the same profile and area in pop a cross-section, in the center of the channels, sealed pneumatic hoses are laid, on the sides and on top of which are placed two soft gas-filled cylinders, tightly covered on top with a stacked body of elements that are attached to the upper edges of the frame ribs; the vertically raised tail unit is double, in the gap between them at the base of the compressor is located, through the manifold and automatic valves supplying compressed air to the pneumatic hose from the side of their leeward ends, and above the transmission mechanism for changing the angle of attack of the wind axes of rotation of the air-screw electric aircraft engines of variable thrust and oncoming rotation, raised above the typesetting body of the module and spaced in both directions symmetrically from the double tail. 2. Aeroenergostat according to claim 1, characterized in that wind pressure sensors are placed on the module surfaces, interacting through a processor with an actuator, which is part of the mooring unit and which rotates a horizontal rotary beam with two cable mounted on the central axis through a gear cable bays and their drives, while the bays with equipment are equally spaced from the axis of rotation to the opposite ends of the rotary beam.

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