WO2008124028A1 - Energy conversion to or from rotational motion - Google Patents

Energy conversion to or from rotational motion Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2008124028A1
WO2008124028A1 PCT/US2008/004334 US2008004334W WO2008124028A1 WO 2008124028 A1 WO2008124028 A1 WO 2008124028A1 US 2008004334 W US2008004334 W US 2008004334W WO 2008124028 A1 WO2008124028 A1 WO 2008124028A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
vane
motion
fluid
axis
provision
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2008/004334
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Jacob Mettes
Original Assignee
Jacob Mettes
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Jacob Mettes filed Critical Jacob Mettes
Publication of WO2008124028A1 publication Critical patent/WO2008124028A1/en

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Classifications

    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • F03D—WIND MOTORS
    • F03D3/00—Wind motors with rotation axis substantially perpendicular to the air flow entering the rotor 
    • F03D3/06—Rotors
    • F03D3/062—Rotors characterised by their construction elements
    • F03D3/066—Rotors characterised by their construction elements the wind engaging parts being movable relative to the rotor
    • F03D3/067—Cyclic movements
    • F03D3/068—Cyclic movements mechanically controlled by the rotor structure
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
    • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
    • F05B2210/00—Working fluid
    • F05B2210/16—Air or water being indistinctly used as working fluid, i.e. the machine can work equally with air or water without any modification
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
    • Y02B30/00—Energy efficient heating, ventilation or air conditioning [HVAC]
    • Y02B30/52—Heat recovery pumps, i.e. heat pump based systems or units able to transfer the thermal energy from one area of the premises or part of the facilities to a different one, improving the overall efficiency
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
    • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
    • Y02E10/70—Wind energy
    • Y02E10/74—Wind turbines with rotation axis perpendicular to the wind direction

Definitions

  • Appendix A Estimation of the power generated by the wind/water motor.
  • Appendix B Estimation of the power increase operating at non-uniform rotational speed.
  • Appendix C Effects related to the distance of a position on the blade to the blade's axis.
  • Appendix E Single wide blade enclosure mathematical path description.
  • blower vacuum pump, vacuum cleaner
  • Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OPTEC cost prohibitive. geothermal: high capital cost, high maintenance. heat pump, refrigeration, air conditioning: noisy, low efficiency.
  • the technology converts energy associated with linear motion of wind or water streams into energy associated with mechanical rotation and vise versa. Conversion according to the technology involves smooth, low entropy change transitions enabling the use of simple inexpensive device materials not required to have extreme properties such as ultra low mass density or high material strength. Converting, this way, energy from linear motion of wind or water streams addresses many of the economic and environmental problems associated with current state of the art technologies ranging from difficulties extracting economically energy from most free, alternative resources to environmental impact such as noise, bird or fish kill, etc. associated with high speed rotation of wind and water turbines or propellers.
  • Fig. 1 Sailboat on circular path.
  • FIG. 11 Graph from mathematical description of a vane enclosure.
  • Fig. 12 Positions and displaced volumes in a fully enclosed structure.
  • Fig. 13 Positions and displaced volumes in a partially enclosed structure.
  • Fig. 15 Direct coupling to rotation around main axis.
  • Fig. 16 Rack and pinion on slotted provision.
  • Fig. 18 Yaw provision changing the vane angle.
  • Fig. 19 Yaw provision changing the position of the secondary axis.
  • Fig. 20 Stacked vanes vertical axis wind mill with cross provisions and secondary axis driven generator.
  • Fig. 21 One side open profile cross provision.
  • Fig. 22 One side open profile cross provision with slide.
  • Fig. 25 Preferred embodiment 2, floating turbine with cross provision and linear motion drives.
  • Fig. 26 Preferred embodiment 2, detailed view of cross centre floating turbine.
  • Fig. 27 Preferred embodiment 2, detailed view pinion driven floating turbine slide.
  • Fig. 28 Fourth preferred embodiment, fully enclosed, minimal leakage, slide provision driven heat pump device.
  • Fig. 31 Sliding provision for eleventh preferred embodiment.
  • Fig. 33 Shell provision for cross sliding constrains.
  • Fig. 36 Telescopic bearing cage displacements.
  • Fig. 37 Interrupted and uninterrupted leg cross shaped means.
  • Fig. 38 Linear gearbox provision.
  • Fig. 39 Rack and pinion on uninterrupter leg of cross shaped means.
  • the characteristic motion pattern that forms the basis of the invention can be understood by following the sail position of a sailboat that describes a circular path, see figure 1.
  • the position of the boat on the circle is defined by the angle ⁇ while the sail position is given by an angle ⁇ /2.
  • the wind in figure 1 blows in the direction indicated by the arrow. It hits the moving sail as the apparent wind under a certain angle and gets deflected which results into a force perpendicular on the sail.
  • This force can be decomposed into a component tangent to the circular path and an axial component.
  • the tangential component performs work as the sail propagates over its circular path thus extracting energy from the wind.
  • a circle is mathematically defined by three scalar entities x, y and r being the coordinates of the center and the radius.
  • To define the above motion pattern requires beside the definition of a circular path also an angle ⁇ that defines the direction of the wind.
  • ⁇ that defines the direction of the wind.
  • the center of the circle (0,0) is hereunder associated with the "main axis” which is a line through the origin perpendicular to the plane of figure 1.
  • a “secondary axis” is one of the two lines, parallel to the main axis going either through point A or B.
  • Appendix A gives a mathematical derivation of the amount of extracted energy given the geometry, wind speed etc. shown in figure 2.
  • Appendix B calculates the efficiency increase obtained by rotating a single vane (sail) faster through the section where it is basically "against the wind”.
  • Appendix C refines the model of appendix A entering the impact of differences of the apparent wind over the width of the vane.
  • Appendix D calculates the capacity factor for a given average wind speed and vane geometry, assuming a Raleigh wind distribution and a 1/7 power law relationship for the wind at different heights.
  • Appendix E gives a mathematical description of the path taken by the edge of a single wide vane used when enclosing devices like blowers and heat exchangers etc.
  • FIG. 4 shows a spur gear based mechanism using only two gears, a fixed spur gear 41 and an internal spur gear 42 thus establishing the required direction of rotation.
  • the ratio of the number of teeth of gear 42 and gear 41 for is 2: 1.
  • Vane 43 is fixed to or coupled to gear 42, so that they undergo the same rotation and have the same axis of rotation.
  • a practical embodiment could have gear 41 fixed on, e.g., a housing leaving its center free to pass a bearing supported axle.
  • This axle connects to an arm provision enabling to connect to another bearing positioned at the center of gear 42 fixing the distance between these centers at the length of the radius of gear 41.
  • An alternative embodiment could hold gear 42 within a bearing that is positioned in a larger body that centers around the center of gear 41. Either such bearings could be a thin wide diameter bearing.
  • Gearbox Figure 5 shows a mechanism using gear boxes to link the angle of rotation on the above mentioned circle around main axis 51 to the angle of rotation of the rotating vane 56.
  • This arrangement uses an axis 52 perpendicular to the main axis of rotation 51.
  • Axis 52 connects axis 51 to axis 52 with a 1 : 1 ratio gearbox 53.
  • Axis 52 further connects to axis 54 through another gearbox 55 with a teeth ratio 1 :2 making the vane 56 spin twice as slow.
  • FIG. 5 shows an axis 52 that has an offset toward the plane containing parallel axis 51 and 54 which can be obtained by using helical gear in the gearboxes. Symmetry can be obtained by using a similar offset at the other side of the plane for gearboxes 57 and 58 situated at the other extremity of the vane 56.
  • Figure 6 shows a mechanism not based on gearwheels but on linear motions of sliding means 63 and 64 constrained to the perpendicular legs of a moving means 65 that has a cross shaped pattern. Said constrained linear motion allows each of the two sliding means to move up and down within its leg of the cross shaped means 65.
  • Cylinders 61 and 62 are rigidly attached to respectively sliding means 63 and 64.
  • the axis of cylinder 61 and 62 are positioned perpendicular to the plane of the cross shaped means 65 and their positions are not subjected to any of the here described motions. However, rotation of each of the cylinders, with its attached sliding means, around the cylinder's fixed axis is allowed.
  • This arrangement restricts the motion of the center of the cross shaped means 65 to a circle where the circle's center is situated in between both cylinder axis on the above define main axis. Note that the two cylinder axis coincide with the above mentioned two secondary axis. Moreover, the arrangement makes the orientation of the cross in space follows the desired half angle, ⁇ /2, relationship with the angle ⁇ of rotation on the said circle. Vane 66 is rigidly connected to the cross shaped means 65 with the axis of the vane coaxial with the axis of the cross 65 that is perpendicular to the plane of the cross and passes through the cross' center. The direction of the vane is fixed relative to the two legs of the cross 65.
  • a variation of providing vane positioning means by using constrains on linear motions as disclosed above consists of providing means 65 where the angle between the two legs differs from 90 degrees. When this angle is tunable it can provide a way according to the invention to change the yaw as disclosed under "Yaw Provisions".
  • cross shaped moving means 65 provide two pairs of outer parallel boundaries constraining each of the sliding means 63 and 64 to a linear motion within the legs of the cross.
  • Each sliding means has a pair of inner parallel boundaries enabling it to be “slidingly” clamped in between one of such pair of outer parallel boundaries allowing only one degree of freedom.
  • the outer parallel boundaries are kept in place by being connected to each other at the ends of the cross.
  • Figure 33 shows shell provisions, 331-334, enabling such motion keeping such outer parallel boundaries in position all over the length of the legs of the cross.
  • the C shaped cross section of the shown shell provision can be replace by other shapes like a U shape, etc.
  • Sliding means 63 and 64 are shown in figure 33 as sliding means 335 and 336 while groove provisions 337 and 338 are shown in respectively sliding means 335 and shell provision 331 as part of a hereunder disclosed telescopic bearing provision representing an option to enable sliding.
  • Groove provision 338 can be considered an outer parallel boundary and groove provision 337 an inner parallel boundary.
  • Shown cage means 339 and 3310 are also part of such telescopic bearing provision.
  • Figure 34 shows subsequent stages during a period of motion of the version presented in figure 33 which should be viewed from left to right going from top to bottom. The two arrows in figure 34 point at the equivalent of cylinders 61 and 62 in figure 6.
  • a telescopic bearing provision enables one degree of linear freedom of motion while blocking the remaining twee degrees of linear motion and, as illustrated in figure 35, consists of: a pair of interconnected outer parallel boundaries, such as groove provision 358 in shell provision 353, a pair of interconnected inner parallel boundaries, such as groove provision 359 in sliding means 351, a number of rolling means which can be a ball, such as 354, a roller or a bearing each contacting an inner and an outer parallel boundary, a cage provision which keeps the rolling means in a fixed position relative to the cage provision, allowing the rolling means only to rotate, such as the 352 and 355 components in figure 35 that hold ball 354 having openings allowing part of the ball to stick out but not to pass through.
  • a provision that keeps the inner race of such bearings at fixed positions relative to each other constitutes also a cage provision according to the invention.
  • the telescopic bearing provision can be equipped with stopper means that assure proper alignment of the cage provision along the length of the groove provision at certain moments during the periodic motion of the various forms of linear motions based vane positioning means.
  • Figure 35 shows such stopper means as 356 and 357 residing respectively at the extremities of sliding means 351 and the shell provisions 353.
  • the length of the involved inner boundaries, outer boundaries means and cage provision have to be optimized enabling the stopper means to be timed properly. Said length can simultaniously be optimized to provide to maxime support for the involved means without obstruction the various motions.
  • the cage provision enables roller means to cross an interruption or gap in theit boundaries carrying some of the roller means within its enclosure while the cage provision stays aligned by other roller means that are still contacting their boundaries.
  • figure 35 shows a single pair of opposing linear bearings, more such pairs tilted at different angles can provide additional strength of the overall structure.
  • Figure 36 shows subsequent stages during a period of motion of the version presented in figure 35 which should be viewed from left to right going from top to bottom.
  • the two arrows in figure 6c point at the equivalent of cylinders 61 and 62 in figure 6.
  • Figure 37 shows how alternated shell provisions 375 and 374 can be used as the equivalent of the sliding means 63 and 64 in figure 6 in combination with using interrupted or uninterrupted alternated slider provisions, respectively 371 & 372 and 373, to make up the equivalent of cross shaped means 65 in figure 6. Besides showing how shell and sliding provisions roles can be exchanged, figure 37 shows how one leg of the cross 373 can be configured without interruption or gap by lowering it below the plane of the parts 371 & 372 of the remaining, interrupted, leg.
  • a smaller bearing 72 rotates with its center within the inner radius of a larger bearing 71 where the axis of both bearings are parallel.
  • the axis of the smaller bearing is maintained at a fixed distance D from the axis of the larger bearing by "moon" shaped disk means 75.
  • a disk provision 76 equipped with slotted means 74 and is situated inside the inner radius of the smaller bearing 72.
  • the length of the slot 74 is four times said distance D while the middle of the slot coincides with the axis of the smaller bearing 72.
  • the vane is behind the shown parts in figure 7 and the vane's axis is coaxial with the axis of smaller bearing 72 while the vane is fixed to slotted means 74 keeping it parallel to said slotted means 74.
  • the actual positioning of the angular position of the vane can now be done by keeping the plane of the vane, and thus the slot 74, passing through a fixed point situated on the said circular path. This is achieved by cylinder pin provision 73 whose axis is perpendicular to the plane of the bearings and whose diameter fits tightly within the width of the slot 74.
  • a similar arrangement can be made at the other extremity of the vane, optionally creating a 90 degrees phase shift between the plane of the vane and the second slot thus eliminating any ambiguity in the vane's position.
  • 4.4.7 Other Alternative mechanism to impose the motion according to the invention includes the use of a chain connection connecting two teethed wheels with a teeth ratio of 2: 1 similar to the case of the external spur wheels presented above, where the chain basically replaces the idler gear wheel.
  • Other possibilities according to the invention are structures that combine parts of the above mentioned mechanism or obvious equivalents of gear wheels, linear motions and the like such as replacing a bearing by circular track and setting gear ratios by track and pinion provisions. Rotational motion can be supported by various kind of bearings but also, e.g., a circular track supporting rolling provisions.
  • Specifically single vane setups that extract energy from a fluid stream can use a small part of the acquired energy to push the vane through mentioned point, storing energy in a flywheel or using electricity to power a motor to perform this task, e.g., using the generator as a motor to gain rotational speed prior to going against the direction of the flow.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates such symmetry in the case of gear boxes, showing essentially a twin version of the structure of figure 5.
  • the main axis 51 in figure 5 is 81 in figure 8
  • satellite axis 54 is 82
  • vane 56 is 84 while a twin vane 85 is added with its satellite axis 83 and the associated gearboxes.
  • a structure with three vanes can achieve above cited coincidence by distributing the axis of the vanes over a circle with 120 degree angles in between neighboring vanes. A similar situation can be created for multiple blades.
  • Mass can be arranged in a manner that the center of mass of the overall rotating structure remains fixed. When the vane and its associated positioning provisions are rotating, one can arrange an equivalent passive, not vane related, mass to undergo the same rotation providing a weight distribution with the center of its mass at the opposite side of the center of rotation than that of the center of weight of the vane provision.
  • Figure 9 shows such a provision where material has been remove at 91 and 92 to counterweight mass associated the vane fixed at the other, non-visible, side of 93 which is the slotted provision 76 priory discussed in figure 7.
  • Figure 10 shows how to counterbalance a setup as shown in figure 6.
  • the only fixed, not moving, entities in this setup are the two secondary axis coinciding with the axis of cylinders 61 and 62.
  • No physical provision is available to attach means to make a rotational motion around what would be the main axis, situated in between the two secondary axis.
  • Cross shaped provision 65, vane 66, slider means 63 and 64, cylinder 61 and 62 can be found back in figure 10 as respectively 103, 106, 104, 105, 101 and 102.
  • cylinder 101 was rigidly attached to slide cylinder 104, it now also rigidly attaches on its other end to slide 108 such that slide 104 and 108 are perpendicular to each other.
  • Slide 105, cylinder 102 and slide 109 are positioned in a similar relationship.
  • the slides 108 and 109 are placed inside another cross shaped provision 107 which forces cross 107 to make a motion that mirrors the motion of cross 103.
  • Cross 107 can be made heavier so that it balances not only cross 103 but also vane 106 and other provisions.
  • cross 107 can also support another vane creating a stacked twin setup or a larger stack involving a multitude of vanes.
  • FIG. 29 shows a pair of interrupted legs provisions 2901 and 2902 of a cross shaped means which through thrust bearings such as 2904 are mounted on an insert provision enabling the leg provisions to freely rotating around its length axis which eliminates torque forces and reduces friction on the linear motion of the associated telescopic bearing provision.
  • Thrust bearing such as 2904 can be a sleeve type of bearing and consist of corrosion resistant "plastic" kind of material given that the bearing is not required to make high rpms.
  • the insert provision is rigidly mounted on vane or blade 2903 by supports means such as 2905 and 2909.
  • Figure 29 also shows a synchronisation provision consisting of connecting poles 2906 & 2907 and connector 2908, which aligns telescopic bearing associated boundary provisions or grooves on the two members of the interrupted legs provisions 2901 and 2902, within limits, e.g., set by support means such as 2909. More regarding figure 29 will be explained hereinafter in the eleventh preferred embodiment
  • FIG. 31 shows the sliding means consisting of the support beam 3108, with connection provisions 3101 at its extremities, a generator or alternator provision 3103 to generate electricity, a gimbal with rotational provision 3102 and the actual sliding means 3104 and 3105.
  • the gimbal with rotational provision 3102 is rotatingly mounted on stub 3106 situated on sliding means 3104 while the involved rotational axis coincides with one of the two priorly presented axis of cylinder 61 or 62, see figure 6.
  • Generator or alternator provision 3103 is rotatingly mounted on stub 3112 situated on sliding means 3105 while the involved rotational axis coincides with the remaining of the two priorly presented axis of cylinder 61 or 62, see figure 6.
  • connection provisions 3101 enable to secure the position of the support beam by, e.g., cables and have freedom through bearings 3113 to freely rotate coaxially with the length axis of support beam 3108.
  • Gimbal with rotational provision 3102 provides rotational freedom to support beam 3108 around its length axis through a bearing means 3107 that is mounted in a gimbal arrangement involving axis 3109 that is situated perpendicular on the plane that confines the length axis of support beam 3108.
  • the length of the piece of support beam that is rigidly mounted to the generator or alternator provision 3103 between provisions 3103 and 3102 remains rigorously fixed. Use of the provisions of figure 31 will be explained further hereinafter in the eleventh preferred embodiment.
  • Figure 12 shows how the rotating wide single vane, 122, and its fully enclosing wall 121 allow to isolate a volume that changes size as a function of the angle of rotation of the vane's axis on the circle that forms the basis of the motion according to the invention.
  • two or three isolated volumes are present in various stages of expansion or contraction. All volumes evolve in a similar matter during the rotation but with a different phase shift.
  • the evolution of a volume can be followed through the sequence of pictures that makes up figure 12. In figure 12a, a new volume is about to be created at the lower side of the said pointed structure 123 in the wall 121.
  • the new volume is hardly visible as 124, where it is clearly present as the lower left dark grey area 125 in figure 12c.
  • the dark grey area continues to grow as 126, 127 and 128 respectively in figures 12d, 12e and 12f while it keeps being connected to mentioned lower side of the pointed part of the wall's structure 123.
  • the sequence can be continued by looking again at figure 12a where the dark grey area of figure 12f is now represented in figure 12a by the light grey bottom half area 129.
  • the horizontal vane 122 position of figure 12a and 12f represents the moment where the connection with the said lower side of the said pointed structure 123 is broken upon further vane axis rotation.
  • a fully enclosed device such as shown in figure 12 constitute basically a closed loop system.
  • the wall sections SA and SB in closed loop systems that contain a phase changing fluid can be configured to act as heat sink areas SA and SB.
  • Above discussed isolated volumes are either in contact with heat sink area SA or with heat sink area SB and at one point during the rotation with none of them.
  • the provisions described hereunder in the section "Open Loop Systems" for the there described divider means 137 are also applicable for the sharp edge G of the enclosing wall structure at point 111, figure 11. These provision deal with the fact that the vane has a finite thickness, requiring to not fully extend the mentioned sharp edge G to point 111. The thickness of the vane and associated not fully extending edge G will impact the size a gap created by these measures.
  • Provisions as to apply an O-ring seal when coupling rotational motion to a closed loop system in order to prevent leaks are considered to fall within the scope of the invention as well the sealing of non- moving static parts of the overall housing.
  • FIG 13a shows a fluid stream entering in the direction of the arrow through a rectangular cross section channel represented by the structures 133 and 134.
  • the partially enclosed structure 131 tightly encloses the edges of moving vane 132, but leaves out wall sections SA and SB.
  • the stream of fluid exits the device in the direction of the arrow though rectangular cross section represented by the structures 135 and 136. Snapshots of various phases of vane motion are shown in figure 13a-13f.
  • Divider means 137 in figure 13 provides a separation between the inlet and outlet being, at one end, sealingly connected to both the inlet channel part 134 and outlet channel part 135.
  • the other end of rectangular shaped divider means 137 has a knife shaped edge that could theoretically extend up to point 111 shown in figure 11 in case of an infinitely thin vane.
  • the vane has some finite thickness ⁇ which is likely to be the largest in the middle of the vane at the position of the vane's rotational axis.
  • a vane with knife shaped, sharp edges is preferable as it provides a high degree of isolation of the separated volumes.
  • the divider can only extend close to a point (-1 - ⁇ , 0) instead of point 111 where the closeness of this extension depends on the tolerances associated with the construction of the device.
  • the sharp edge of the divider 137 can be made of a flexible material that can be compressed slightly by the vane, thus providing a good isolation of the volumes separated by the vane with the downside of introducing friction and possible wear.
  • Another option according to the inventions is to vary divider 137's distance to 111 variable, providing an adaptation of the position of the sharp edge of the divider 137 linked to the rotational position of the axis of the vane ⁇ , such as by using a CAM device. Leak tightness of the connection of 137 to 134 and 135 could be preserved using flexible provisions or sealing on sliding parts.
  • a fully enclosed, closed loop device with no openings in the enclosing wall, can be configured to vent the compressed volume into the neighboring expanding volume at the opposite side of the pointed part of the wall structure. Such venting will take place through the gap in between the side of the vane and the sharp edge of the said pointed structure of the wall that constitutes the enclosure.
  • the compression created by the decreasing volume is accompanied by a phase change of the contained fluid, which will then change from the gas phase into the liquid phase, it will be mainly liquid that is pressed through the said gap.
  • Figure 14 shows a relatively leak tight configuration where the vane 141 is in between and sealingly connected to two disks 142 and 143. Apart from leaks at the sharp edges of the vane, leaks will occur at the rim of the enclosing wall structure, not shown in figure 14, that faces the two disks 142 and 143 separated by a tight gap.
  • the described device scales well toward larger sizes in the sense that a larger device will have a better ratio between the area of the vane and the length of the rim at the edge of the vane. As the internal leak rate likely is proportional to the length of the rim, a higher pressure differential can be created for a larger device.
  • An option according to the invention is to hermetically seal blade, disks such as 287 in figure 28 and wall edges using ferrofluids addressing leaktightness and tolerance issues of non-contacting moving parts specifically for fully enclosed versions such as the heat exchanger.
  • Associated sharp edges in close proximity to a flat or slightly curve surface enables to make strong inhomogeneous magnetic field featuring a large gradient favouring the containment of said magnetic ferro fluids.
  • a closed loop, fully enclosed setup with given temperatures for wall heat sink areas SA and SB can be filled with an amount of fluid that results in an average pressure in the device that sets the associated boiling/condensation point of the fluid in relationship, e.g., in between the temperatures of SA and SB. Taking fluid in or out the active volume of the device allows to adapt for changing temperatures of the wall heat sink areas SA and SB by adjusting the boiling/condensation point setting.
  • the fully enclosed device filled with a fluid at an appropriate pressure can be configured without any coupling of the rotational motion to the outside. Energy extracted from a temperature difference will be used to increase the capacity to transport more heat.
  • Such a device constitutes a heat exchanger that actively becomes the equivalent of an infinitely long heat exchanger.
  • Such a device accomplishes its heat exchange role not by involving a large surface area, like the infinitely long device, but by actively creating temperature differences at the area at its disposal. The avoidance of a large area will avoid the associated radiation losses that otherwise would set limits on the performance of the device.
  • an infinitely long heat exchanger represent a barrier for the fluid associated to a pressure drop over the heat exchanger. The new device can accomplish this with a potentially small drop in pressure over the heat exchanger.
  • Figure 15 illustrates direct coupling between rotational devices, such as motor 151 to parts of the rotation/positioning provisions, such as rotating plate 154 that is constrained to rotate around the fixed main axis, 155.
  • the actual coupling takes place through gear wheel 153 that is mounted on the motor axis 152.
  • Gear wheel 152 couples to the teethed rim of plate 154.
  • Figure 15 shows vane 158 operating in a blower device featuring the partial enclosure 159 based setup that is shown in figure 13 as 131.
  • Figure 15 also illustrates the counterweighted means to fix the center of mass of the structure rotating around the main axis 155 as the cutout disk 157 where heavier material of the plate 154 is replaced by lighter material to obtain the associated balance.
  • Figure 15 shows said coupling for a vane positioning means based on gear mechanism consisting of a set of external gear similar to the setup shown in figure 3, where 155 and 156 in figure 15 correspond to respectively 31 and 32 in figure 3. Similar couplings can be used for other vane positioning means according to the invention such as gear based provisions shown in figure 4 and gear box based provisions shown in figure 5 where, e.g., a coupling can be made to the housing of the gearbox. Analog coupling to chain based provisions and linear motion based provisions or combinations thereof can also be made.
  • the larger bearing 71 show in figure 7 constrains the moon shaped device 75 to a rotational motion around the axis of bearing 71 that constitutes in this case the, not physically present, main axis.
  • Coupling of rotational devices to moon shaped device 75 can, for example, take place by using a teethed rim attached to device 75, e.g., at the side next to the bearing.
  • an endless chain could be placed on two teethed wheels connecting to at least one rotating means such as motors or generators that are placed at the appropriate points on the moving structure linked to the vane while the chain is rigidly fixed at a rotating cylinder fixed around one of the secondary axis. More details of this last arrangement is given hereunder in the second preferred embodiment representing a floating vane on a cross shaped provision.
  • Figure 17 shows how such type of coupling can be provided for a cross shaped provision where placing a rack provision along the length of one of the legs would block connection of the slide provision in the other leg with its associated provision on its secondary axis.
  • Figure 17 shows how part of the rack can be left out leaving separate pieces 171 and 172 with a gap in between them while preserving the teeth alignment corresponding with an uninterrupted rack.
  • the gap allows unblocked passage of, e.g., a cylinder situated on a secondary axis U, while shown provision consisting of linked pinions 173 and 174 can maintain its coupling with the rack even when passing over the interrupted section.
  • the linked pinion provision can, e.g., be installed in a slide provision and its two pinions are not only linked to each other but also to gearwheel 177 which is positioned coaxial with the other secondary axis V. Said linkage between pinions and gearwheel 177 can be accomplished using auxiliary gearwheels 178 and 179 that each rotate as a single entity with its pinion and mutual axis 175 or 176. Gearwheel 177 provides the actual coupling between the rack and a cylinder means rotating around secondary axis V.
  • Figure 17 shows rigidly connected gearwheels 178 and 173 (and 179 and 174) with different radii which provides an additional step to obtain high rpms for the generator. Such combination however can be replaced by a simpler single "idler" carrying a single ball bearing which allows to fix axis 175 (and 176) rigidly into a structure such as shown in figure 23.
  • vane 34 in figure 3 could, in principle, be equipped with a sufficiently long rack that couples to a pinion placed around the appropriate secondary axis.
  • Advantages of this type of coupling can consist of the avoidance of high ratio gear boxes coupling a very slowly rotating vane to high rpm requiring electric generators, because coupling through a secondary axis can already provide high rpms when using low number of teeth pinions.
  • Another advantage can be that it allows to restrict the number of potentially heavy structures that have to be held at fixed positions, as can be seen in the mentioned second preferred floating single vane embodiment.
  • a completely different way to coupling onto a linear motion is to use the linear motion to drive a piston to displace a hydraulic fluid or to pump water.
  • the hydraulic fluid or pumped water can pass through a hollow version of a secondary axis in order to provide a practical point of use.
  • Linear gearbox Figure 38 discloses the concept of a linear gearbox according to the invention, specifically involving slow linear motion by providing an additional factor to increase the rotational speed of an electricity generating device.
  • the shown cross-section in the figure intersects the center of a kinetic drag turbine and the leg, the first leg, that is perpendicular on the leg associated with the vane or blade, shown as 3814, being the second leg of the associated cross provision according to the invention.
  • the center of a first sliding means 382 connect through pole 381 to a chain or cable 383 which is securing a fixed point in the length of the chain or cable so that it will follow the linear motion of the sliding means along the first leg.
  • the chain or cable 383 is positioned below the point where it could block the motions of the second sliding means associated with the motion according to the invention.
  • the satillate floating devices, or pontons are situated at the ends of the first leg and each house an idler teethed wheel, or pulley, 385. These iddler teethed wheels or pulleys turn around the direction of the motion of chain or cable 383 which ends connect each to an end of idler carrier 389, causing the latter to describe a mirrored path of the point where pole 381 connects to chain or cable 383.
  • a second chain or cable 387 whose ends are rigidly connected each at a point 386 on a satellite, wraps around two idler teethed wheels or pulleys such as 388 on idler carrier 389 and is guided through additional idlers such as 3810 and 3811 to drive a teethed wheel or pulley 3812 on each of the electricity generating means 3812 where after chain or cable 383 crosses to the other side. Multiples of such assemblies can be made where each provides a factor two increase of speed of the involved chain or cable.
  • the water level in figure 38 is symbolically shown as line 3816 while also shown are enclosing bellows 384 enabling to make a water tight enclosure.
  • Uninterrupted rack and pinion provision Figure 39 shows a rack and pinion type of coupling enabling to transform a slow linear motion into a high speed rotational motion.
  • the rack is part of a leg 391 of the associated cross shaped means carrying sliding means 393 while the pinion is mounted on the axis of generator or alternator means 392. More details are visible in separate enlarged detail pictures at the bottom of figure 39 showing the actual rack 395 mounted facing a flat surface barrier 394 across a midcenter plane through the length axis of the leg 391. Also shown in the picture are thrust bearing 397 and its associated support means 396.
  • Figure 40 discloses the actual coupling between pinion 4010 and rack 408 while their proper distance is maintained by bearings 409 and 4012 in contact with flat surface barrier shown in picture 39 as 394, thus setting the maximum distance between the rack and the pinion.
  • Pinion 4010, bearing 409 and bearing 4012 are all coaxially mounted on the axis 407 of the generator or alternator means 401.
  • a bearing on the axis 407 that contacts a flat surface barrier on the same side as the rack, thus setting the shortest distance between the rack and the pinion.
  • Figure 40 shows additionally bearing 404 enabling rotation of the generator or alternator means 392 related to sliding means 405, flat surface barrier 4011 and grooves 405 and 406 holding rolling means such as balls. Provisions to seal of the exposed rack provision in a waterproof way by bellows or even zipper kind of provisions to adapt to the motion of the corresponding slider are considered within the scope of the invention.
  • the invention provides means to transform this output into a stable voltage that can be supplied to a load, a battery or a large capacity that can serve as a buffer smoothing out fluctuations.
  • the following describes the power electronics according to the invention that generates a stable voltage dealing with a generator output that results from a rack and pinion or equivalent scenario, such as based on chain, where the generator's rpm varies from zero to max and back to zero again.
  • the generator can be a DC generator where a provision switches the polarity when the generator's rotational direction changes thus providing a single polarity DC output with * varying voltage.
  • the same can be accomplished with a AC generator using a rectifier provision transforming AC into DC.
  • a multitude of electronic switches is used to interconnect a number of capacities in combinations of series and/or parallel arrangements.
  • the electronic switches stack capacities in series to connect to above varying DC voltage in such number that each individual capacity will charge up to a predetermined low voltage. Once a capacity approaches said predetermined voltage, its associated electronic switches will connect it to discharge over a load in parallel with other capacities that are in a similar condition. After discharging to a lower voltage, the capacity will again become part of the stacked capacities connected to the varying DC voltage in order to be charged.
  • Groups of capacities stacked in series can be arrange in parallel to handle larger currents when charging. Electricity can now be provided at a voltage around said predetermined low voltage value using such switch management circuit that constantly rearranges a multitude of capacitors between parallel for discharging and stacking them in series to match the currently generated voltage when charging.
  • a similar electronics, working in reverse can be used to drive a motor at varying voltage powered from a stable voltage source thus enabling to couple the associated energy into provisions undergoing linear motion according to the invention.
  • Control electronics controlling the electric load on the electricity generating means enable to adapt the maximum forces exercised on the construction and to adapt to the capacity of the installed generator or alternator.
  • Yaw provisions for the purpose of the current invention, allow to adapt to or generate changes in the direction of the fluid stream, respectively extracting or adding energy from or to such stream.
  • a yaw provision can rotate the gear around the main axis or rotate the main mast itself.
  • vane positioning means such as linear motions on the one hand, shown in figure 18, the angle of the vane in respect to the slot or a leg of the cross can be adapted for yaw purposes illustrated by the angle between lines 181 and 182.
  • the angle with the stream ditection of a line between the two secondary axis can be modified by moving one or both of the positions of the secondary axis as shown in figure 19.
  • Figure 19 shows a provision to vary said angle by rotating parallel beams 193 and 194 around axis 192.
  • the rotational point of axis 192 is situated at a fixed position on beam 191 which corresponds, e.g., to 208 in the preferred embodiment of figure 20 where it constitutes a fixed horizontal beam connecting poles 2015 and 2016.
  • Figure 19 shows the secondary axis 195 and 196, at the extremities of beams 193 and 194, as the associated cylinders which carry respectively slider provision sets 197 & 1910 and 198 & 1911 to support cross provisions such as 199.
  • each cylinder When vanes are vertically stacked, such as the embodiment shown in figure 20, each cylinder carries a slider on one end that is perpendicular to the one on the opposite end as priory presented, see figure 10.
  • the vane In case of only one vane, or in case the vane is the lowest one of a series of vertically stacked vanes, only the upper sliders are present.
  • one or both of the lower cylinder ends can be replaced by a coupling/gear ratio provision connecting the cylinder's rotational motion to another rotational motion coaxial to axis 192 coupling latter rotation to that of a motor/generator provision.
  • rotation related to yaw rotation is, obviously, independent of the rotation related to said motor/generator provision where the latter's coupling takes place at a point below that of the yaw provision.
  • a single motor/generator provision can be solidly positioned at a secure and accessible ground level.
  • the said coupling/gear ratio provision can consist of a series of spur gear sets supported and held in place by provisions on beam 193 that stepwise increase the rotational speed from the low rpms associated with rotation of the involved cross provisions to the required high rpms associated with the electric motor or generators.
  • the provision on beam 193 could contain, e.g., vertically positioned needle bearing supporting axles carrying a spur gear with a large number of teeth on one end and a spur gear with a low number of teeth on the other end. Such gearing up of rotational motion would be unnecessary in case the involved energy is used for, e.g., low rpm water pumping applications.
  • a variation of providing vane positioning means by using constrains on linear motions consists of providing a means 65, figure 6, with an angle between the two legs different from 90 degrees. When this angle is made tunable, it provides a way to change the yaw. Varying said angle changes the circular path described by the center of the modified cross provision. Obviously, the positions of the auxiliary axis remains unchanged but the position of the associated main axis changes being the center of said circular path. The relation between the direction of the wind and said angle can be determined by drawing a plane through the auxiliary axis that constrains the leg carrying the vane and said main axis. The corresponding wind direction will now be perpendicular to this plane.
  • a diamond shaped moveable mechanical assembly can be used to synchronized the change of said angle (like the mechanical device used to lift a car to change a flat tire, car jack). Yaw adjustments tend to be slow and can be done in small incremental steps, e.g., by block and deblocking associated displacement mechanism at appropriate times during the vane's cyclic motion so that the wind provides the force required to do associated work.
  • a specific yaw provision according to the invention consist of grouping single vane or blade kinetic drag turbines such as disclosed in the second preferred embodiment into a pair or multiple pairs.
  • a pair is created by alligning the associated support beams, see, e.g., 3108 in figure 31, so that they form one long beam.
  • a control system can synchronize the motions of the individual turbines of a pair so that they mirror each other. In such arrangement forces in the direction of the support beam would cancel out if the assembly is fully aligned in the stream. If not fully aligned, a net force in the direction of the support beam will exist which will actually push the assembly into alignment.
  • Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion OPTEC geothermal heat pump, refrigeration, air conditioning. systems where the temperature of a heat sink is associated with an air or water stream. active heat sink, using recovered energy from the temperature difference to provide more heat transport.
  • Figure 2 shows vectors representing the wind W 1 the position of a satellite axis R , the speed of the satellite S, and the position of the blade B.
  • the apparent wind V is equal to W-S.
  • the direction of the blade is b .
  • R ⁇ R. cos ⁇ , R. sin ⁇ ,
  • X R ⁇ /W, where X is the tip speed ratio.
  • h is the height of a rotor blade
  • R is the distance from the main axis to a satellite axis
  • r is the distance from the satellite axis to the edge of the rotor blade (blade is 2r wide) .
  • N is the direction normal to the blade pointing away from the source of the wind, so:
  • N ⁇ -sin( ⁇ /2), cos( ⁇ /2) ⁇ when 0 ⁇ ⁇ ⁇ ⁇ and (Al)
  • N ⁇ sin( ⁇ /2), -cos( ⁇ /2) ⁇ when ⁇ ⁇ ⁇ ⁇ 2 ⁇ .
  • the force F on a blade will be in the direction of the normal on the blade and the size will be proportional to cos ⁇ .
  • the angle ⁇ is between the direction N normal to the blade and that of the apparent wind V .
  • the factor cos ⁇ is due to the reduced exposed area.
  • the average instantaneous power is: ⁇
  • the average generated power is: ⁇ 2/ (3 ⁇ ) ⁇ . CpA. W 3 .X. ( 1 - X) 2 .
  • the average power coefficient as the average power generated by one blade of the wind motor divided by the wind power passing through a cross section of the wind stream with the same area as the blade.
  • X 1/3 when most power is extracted
  • even lower rotational speeds through this section could be beneficial, e.g., when the generated power would otherwise exceed the capacity of the generator. This way a larger fraction of the cycle would be spend generating electricity at maximum capacity.
  • a factor 5/(2V2 )more power can be extracted going through the mentioned segment which represent half of the trajectory. However, no power is extracted going through the remaining half. Given the factor three higher speed through the latter, 75% of the time, instead of one half, is now spend extracting energy.
  • the overall result is a factor 15/(8v2) which corresponds to a 32.6 percent increase, which is about the maximum increase that can be obtained varying the value of a.
  • the proposed wind/water motor rotating at a uniform speed can transform kinetic energy into rotational energy with a, windspeed independent, 12.45 percent efficiency.
  • appendix A approximates the speed at any position on the blade to be equal to the speed of the blade's axis. This appendix takes speed differences into account across the blade's area. General formulas are given to take this effect into account, while numeric results are given for the largest impact in case of the widest possible blade.
  • a position on the blade can be described as by a segment of a line passing through point ⁇ R. cos ( ⁇ ) , R. sin ( ⁇ ) ⁇ pointing in the direction ⁇ cos( ⁇ /2), sin( ⁇ /2) ⁇ .
  • H(f, ⁇ ) is the apparent wind which is equal to W-G (f, ⁇ ) where:
  • the force P (f, ⁇ ) on position f on a blade will be in the direction of the normal on the blade and the size will be proportional to cos ⁇ .
  • the angle ⁇ is between the direction N normal to the blade and that of the apparent wind H(f, ⁇ ).
  • the factor cos ⁇ is due to the reduced exposed area.
  • the average instantaneous power is:
  • H(f, ⁇ ) ⁇ .R ⁇ l + 4f 2 + 4f. cos ( ⁇ /2) ⁇ 0 ' 5 . sin ⁇ , W - ⁇ .R ⁇ l + 4f 2 + 4f .cos( ⁇ /2) ⁇ °' 5 .cos ⁇
  • H (f, ⁇ ) .N [W - ⁇ .R ⁇ l + 4f 2 + 4f .cos( ⁇ /2) ⁇ 0 - 5 ] .cos( ⁇ /2)
  • G (f, ⁇ ) ⁇ .R ⁇ l + 4f 2 + 4f .cos( ⁇ /2) ⁇ 0 ' 5 .cos( ⁇ /2) .
  • the instantaneous power P( ⁇ ) on the entire blade is: f P (f, ⁇ ) .
  • G (f, ⁇ )df (l/2)Cp.h.W 3 .2R.cos 3 ( ⁇ /2) .X. f [1 - X ⁇ 1 + 4f
  • the average instantaneous power is: ⁇ ⁇ j
  • X is taken equal to 1/3 which is the optimal value for the approximated case in appendix A.
  • RC E*(l/2)CpA.W rated 3 watts rated capacity, power produced at W rated .
  • Wrated m/sec windspeed used for rating typically 10 m/sec in US
  • a m area of the turbine blade (S) A m area of the turbine blade (S) .
  • P max E*(l/2)CpA.W max 3 watts generator capacity, produced at wind speed >W max .
  • P(W,W avg ) ( ⁇ .W/2)* unity Height independent Raleigh (W avg ) "2 .exp(-0.25 ⁇ (W/W a , probability distribution characterized by W avg .
  • W(h 2 ) W(Ii 1 ) . ⁇ h 2 /h ! ) 1/7 m/sec 1/7 power law based windspeed projection at height h 2 given the windspeed at reference height hi, typically 10 m.
  • unity efficiency factor produced energy divided by the energy associated with a blade area size cross section of the windstream.
  • E is W independent for the current design and equals 0.1245 or 0.0991 as calculated in appendix A &
  • the impact of the blade (s) height on the capacity factor can be taken into account by introducing a height dependend Raleigh distribution.
  • the corresponding height corrected capacity factor CCF is:
  • the capacity factor includes proporties of the wind turbine as well as proporties of the site where it is installed.
  • the capacity factor definition is often expanded to the average energy produced over, e.g., a year or seasonal period divided by the rated capacity. Such definition would include maintenance periods and also, hereunder further discussed, wake effects caused by neighbouring windmills in a windfarm setup.
  • the new turbine extract energy with a about 10% efficiency, which is roughly a factor 3 lower than typical state of the art turbines. Based on the drag forces, the new turbines will also leave a less turbulent wake. These features might lead to even higher turbine densities that place the device structures close enough together to enabling shared poles and support cables.
  • Figure 2 shows vectors representing the position of the satellite axis R , the position of the blade B and the direction of the blade is b .
  • R ⁇ R. cos ⁇ , R. sin ⁇ ,
  • R is the distance from the main axis to a satellite axis
  • 2R is the distance from the satellite axis to the edge of the rotor blade.
  • the enclosure is used in combination with a single wide blade, where the widt, edge to edge is 4R.
  • a position on the blade can be described as by a segment of a line passing through point ⁇ R. cos ( ⁇ ) , R. sin ( ⁇ ) ⁇ pointing in the direction ⁇ cos( ⁇ /2), sin( ⁇ /2) ⁇ .
  • windmill Figure 20 shows a stacked blade, 204 &
  • the horizontal beams 208 and 2014 secure the outside ring of bearings that hold cylinders, two for each beam, at points 206, 207, 2012 and 2013.
  • Figure 24 shows how the vertical beams 2015 and 2016 (fig. 20) secure the endpoints of mentioned horizontal beams supported by a network of cables with connections to mooring points secured in the ground.
  • a vane with its cross provisions on both extremeties can be made into a rigid entity that can handle a large amount of torque with a minimum of deformation by adding a pole between the centers of the crosses and between each cross end point and the corresponding end point of the cross at the opposite side of the vane. Cables, or equivalent rigid tubular provisions, can then be installed making diagonal connections such as between pole endpoints.
  • the cable network can be setup so that forces on beams and poles are directed only along their length axis leading to contraction or elongation along the length of these devices.
  • Figure 24 also shows part of the cables associated with the left hand pole supporting points 2013, and 207 (fig. 20) preventing the associated beams from bending. Cable attachments 241 and 241 on the ground level and top point 243 secure the structure for the left pole while a not shown similar symmetric cable network supports the right hand pole.
  • Figure 21 shows a simple configuration of a cross provision consisting of a cross made from thin walled square extrusion provided with a slot on of its sides.
  • Figure 22 shows how a simple slide provision is linearly constrained within such extrusion 221.
  • Figure 22 shows the slide provision's three sets of 4 wheels enabling the slide to maintain alignment within its leg when passing through the center of the cross provision traversing the other leg. The distance between the three sets is chosen such that during such center crossing always at least two out of the three are constrained by wall contact.
  • Figure 22 shows the wheels, such as 222, that in an economical version can consist of a ball bearing where the outside ring of the bearing contacts the wall.
  • the body of the slide provision consist of four L profiled pieces, such as 223, held in place by twelve cylinder shaped connecting cylinders, such as 224. These cylinders hold also the wheels or bearings that have, e.g., an extended inner race allowing their rotation unhindered by the presence of the L profiled pieces.
  • Figure 23 gives an exploded view of a slide provision showing L profile 231, wheel, or ball bearing, 232, and cylinder 233 secured in the holes 234 and 235.
  • the middle of the slide is attached to a discussed cylinder around a secondary axis by bolts, such as 236 that pass through holes, such as 239 through two out of the four L profiled pieces assisted by wedge shaped provisions 237 and 238.
  • Obvious provisions such as placing brushes on the slide to clean dust etc. out of the inside of the legs of the cross or providing some degree of flexibility to the connections to accommodate deformation under load are considered within the scope of the invention, as well as adapting stacked blades, such as shown in figure 20, to the effects of higher wind speeds at greater heights, e.g., by adapting/varying the blade areas.
  • Other improvements would be to provide the vanes with gravity or spring controlled flap type of provisions that open part of the vane's surface area at high wind speeds thus reducing the active area and the risk to damage the installation.
  • the invention enables to economically extract energy from wind resources and variations of this preferred embodiment can use rack and pinion provisions connecting to generators resting on the ground positioned at the auxiliary axis positions with sliders capable of passing thought the center of the cross while maintaining pinions synchronized to the rack, see figure 17.
  • rack and pinion provisions connecting to generators resting on the ground positioned at the auxiliary axis positions with sliders capable of passing thought the center of the cross while maintaining pinions synchronized to the rack, see figure 17.
  • the main cost of state of the art windmill is typically associated with the turbine blades and the transmission, such versions of the current invention would make the generator become one of the most expensive parts. Given such scenario, it would become desirable to run the windmill most of the time at the maximum capacity of the generator for a range of varying wind speeds, resulting in a high capacity factor.
  • This embodiment is a floating single vane turbine with cross provision and linear motion drives.
  • the vane could be configured hollow to enable floating and to save cost of material, which can consist for example of waterproof concrete.
  • Figure 25 shows a single blade floating vane 252 with two satellite floating devices 2510 & 2511 keeping the vane erect, much like a three hull trimaran sailboat.
  • This embodiment serves as a drag turbine extracting energy from water streams like rivers, ocean currents, tidal currents and waves. The direction of the stream or of traveling waves is indicated by arrow 251.
  • the basic motion and vane positioning is done by linear constrained slide devices 258 & 259 on a cross provision with the two legs 253 & 254 perpendicular to each other but not in the same plane.
  • Beam 255 is anchored by cables connected to its extremities thus fixing the positions of the two secondary axis 256 & 257.
  • the beam connects at these axis to the two sliding provisions 258 and 259 that make linear motions respectively in leg 254 and 253.
  • Floating devices 2510 and 2511 are mounted at the extremities of leg 254 and house each an electricity generator while readily available flowing water optionally makes it easy to cool such generator and avoid demagnetization.
  • the axis 2512 of the generator positioned in floating device 2511 is positioned vertically and equipped with a, not shown, teethed wheel that carries a chain similarly connected to the other generator in floating device 2510.
  • leg 254 connects rigidly to one end of slide 258, loops around the teethed wheel at the generator situated at the same side as the mentioned end of slide 258, and runs toward and around the teethed wheel at the other generator to end up connecting rigidly to the other end of slide 258.
  • Figure 26 shows the just mentioned leg 254 of figure 25 as leg 263 that connects the generators and carries the discussed chain, whill illustrating how that leg is positioned under the other leg 262 of the cross.
  • Leg 262 is mounted on top of the vane show as 252 in figure 25 and is interrupted by a gap in the middle thus allowing passage for the cylinder 256 , figure 25, connecting to slide 258, figure 25.
  • Figure 27 shows details of slide 271, which is slide 259 in figure 25, that is equipped with six combined bearings enabling to smoothly cross the mentioned gap in leg 262 where the gap is smaller than half the length of slide 259.
  • Figure 27 shows a combined bearing consisting of a bearing 275 constraining the slide within the horizontal plane containing the leg 262 while the roller bearing 276 restricts the motion within said plane to the leg itself.
  • Figure 27 also shows circular cutout 272 enabling to connect to cylinder 261 through a not shown ball bearing provision allowing the cylinder to rotate. Cylinder 261 is rigidly connected to beam 255 while a similar setup is made for cylinder 256 connecting to slide 258.
  • Figure 27 shows holes 274 and 275 housing the axis 175 and 176 of the provision shown in figure 17 enabling the synchronized rack and pinion connection with rack 264 which is also interrupted by the mentioned gap.
  • the rack and pinion coupling is driven by a motor not shown in any of the figures that is mounted on area 265 while its axis passes through cylinder 261 to connect to gearwheel 177.
  • Cylinder 261 hereto is made hollow allowing unhindered rotation of said motor axis within the cylinder.
  • a variation of this embodiment that maintains a fully symmetric weight distribution does not use the motor mounted on area 265 and has no rack and pinion provision. Instead this variation uses propellers or equivalent propulsion devices to propel the vane when moving against the stream. Such propulsion means can be symmetrically distributed or weight balanced.
  • Another variation replaces the chain by a cord or string driving corresponding wheels on the two generator axis.
  • Provisions such as placing brushes on the slides to clean out dust, sweep out water etc. from the inside of the legs of the cross are considered well within the scope of the invention as well as using a foldable or reliable electrical cable to transport the electricity from the generator to the moving slider(s) and using pulleys on the chain to get a multiple higher rpms from the generators. Additionally, provisions to have the chain moving in a vertical plane which makes easier to guide under the impact of gravity, putting the chain under tension connecting it to the associated slide provision using springs and using chain guides is considered part of the invention.
  • An automatic yaw provision could made by using two above described devices and connect both device's beams 255 to form a long single beam.
  • Two equally long cables connect from this long single beam extremities to a single moor point.
  • Electronic control of the loads can synchronize the blades rotation so that forces on the devices parallel with said long beam will cancel out.
  • the thus coupled two devices will direct automatically in the direction of the flow.
  • Further support of the long beam can be provided by additional cabling such as by connecting the moor point also to the middle of the beam as well as adding a cable supported beam provision perpendicular to the said long beam constituting a cross.
  • the transport of the generated electricity from the moving parts of the device to the stable part such as beam 255 can take place through the secondary axis cylinders such as 256 and 257, e.g., for alternating current by placing circular transformer coils, one rotating and one fixed, around a cylinder shaped transformer core coaxial with a secondary axis.
  • asymmetric wedges at the vertical blade edges or provisions on the generator enclosures with shapes constituting a Savonius type of drive E.g., Savonius half circular cross section for the two enclosure housings possibly combined with extending the generator supporting leg of the cross.
  • propellers at generator housings directed perpendicular on the generator supporting leg of the cross
  • blade edges directed perpendicular to blade.
  • rudder means on the blade edge, optionally positions at a point during the rotation when there are minimal forces required to position the rudder. supporting mentioned inertia from angular momentum driven motion by reversing the generator making it a motor to gain some more speed prior to passing the blade's point against the direction of the flow.
  • blower vacuum pump
  • vacuum cleaner The setup shown in figure 13 allows a single blade partially enclosed blower to efficiently create a stream of air through a duct.
  • a relatively large volume of air can be displaced at a relatively low number of revolution per minute of the vane provision.
  • This heating up of air constitutes additional losses for applications such as air conditioning that have to use energy to cool the stream down.
  • the inlet stream of this preferred embodiment blower can also serve, e.g., as a vacuum cleaner acting as a pump.
  • Figure 15 shows a gear wheel based vane rotation means used for this preferred embodiment that is simple and compact but leaves opportunity for air flow leaking through space around the gear wheels.
  • the provision shown in figure 14 would avoid such leakage while the principles of its implementation is shown in figure 28 that is further discussed in the fourth preferred embodiment.
  • the device can work without lubricants as the vane does not have to scrape the enclosure wall when provisions are made with tight enough tolerances.
  • the absence of lubricants is important for oil free pumps used in, e.g., the semiconductor manufacturing industry and blowers used in fuel cell related applications.
  • Such driving of enclosed vanes from their two opposite sides is not restricted to open loop systems both can equally be applied to close loop or unenclosed systems using motors but also synchronized loads represented by generators when generating energy.
  • heat pump Fig. 28 shows a single vane fully enclosed heat pump.
  • Vane 281 makes the basic motion according to the invention within fully closed enclosure 282.
  • the vane positioning means consist of slot 284 and bearing 285 provision shown in figure 7 and figure 14 while the center of mass is fixed using counterweight means such as shown in figure 9.
  • a high degree of leak tightness is provided by the two plates connected to the end of the vane such as plate 287 which stay in close proximity of flat plates that make up the housing such as plate 286.
  • Coupling to the slot and bearing vane positioning means is provided by coupling directly to one or both of the secondary axis represented in figure 28 by cylinder 283.
  • FIG. 14 shows how two slots can be positioned perpendicular to each other while coupling can be provided simultaneously at both secondary axis by two motors one coupling as discussed at cylinder 283 and the other one at a similar fixture connecting the other secondary axis at the other slot.
  • the rotation of the two motors should be synchronized to prevent torque on the vane while such synchronization can take place electronically using encoder feedback at the two motors. Alternately, the rotation can be synchronized by externally connecting the two couplings through gears in which case one motor can be used.
  • the heat sink areas correspond with the priory indicated sections SA and SB on the enclosure pattern discussed with figure 11.
  • a phase changing fluid can be used in the closed loop while tuning its pressure allows to adapt to the available temperature difference and can be accomplished by adding or removing quantities of fluid from the enclosed volume.
  • a phase changing fluid can be used in the closed loop while tuning its pressure allows to adapt to the available temperature difference and can be accomplished by adding or removing quantities of fluid from the enclosed volume.
  • two synchronized motors can be applied to generators adapting electronically the associated loads thus synchronizing the rotation.
  • the heat sinks associated with the temperature difference can be obtained, e.g., by on the one hand pumping deep cold ocean water and on the other hand pumping warm surface water to the appropriated areas of the enclosure wall.
  • differences in masses of air or combination air and water can be used.
  • the generated rotational motion can be used to drive open loop partially enclosed versions of the invention for the required pumping associated with the involved air or water streams.
  • Provisons such as extending enclosure 282 in figure 28 at the rim to create a lip parallel to plate 287 thus extending the width of the seal in the outward direction are considered being within the scope of the invention.
  • Aircraft devices should be light while no mass can be wasted for use as counterweight. Vane positioning provisions should also remain small allowing more aerodynamically beneficially shapes.
  • the twin set of gearbox based vane positioning means shown in figure 8 provides both these features. Three of such sets can be arranged in a triangle with each set's main axis 81 constituting one of the triangle's sides. Said main axis can be rigidly fixed constituting the main frame of the craft fixing the yaw such that force is directed perpendicular to the plane of the triangle. Three individually controlled motors situated at the points of the triangle can provide direct coupling onto to housing of the nearest gearbox on the main axis. This would allow to vertically lift a triangular device positioned in a horizontal plane.
  • Tilting the triangle's plane by temporarily exerting unequal forces between the three sets of propulsion devices can provide a force component pushing the device in a desired horizontal direction.
  • the complex power control of the three motors can be done in concert with feedback from a global positioning system, GPS, and gyroscopic sensors. Fins can be installed perpendicular on the triangle providing friction to prevent spinning around the triangle's centre.
  • partially enclosed water propulsion Partially open enclosures in configurations such as described in the third embodiment for air flows are used in the sixth preferred embodiment for watercraft propulsion. Seen the large forces, vane positioning means such as shown in figure 7 are most appropriate combined with counterweight provisions shown in figure 9.
  • the partially enclosed device can be incorporated in the ship providing a high efficiency coupling of rotational motion with the water flow that enters near the bow and leaves at the back side of the craft. Two such propulsion units that rotate independently can be used to provide a steering means by varying the ratio of generated thrust between the units mounted parallel in a horizontal plane.
  • Propulsion of watercraft can achieved with a twin set of unenclosed inundated vanes moving around a vertical main axis.
  • Steering the craft without a rudder type of provision can be achieved by rotating the main axis that is in contact with the vane positioning means to achieve yaw kind of action.
  • Fuel can be burned inside an isolate enclosed volume constituted by the vane and the enclosing wall, thus creating an internal combustion engine.
  • Wall area SA has a small opening or openings near the tip 111, see figure 11, enabling the entry of fuel and air while area SB is partially open to rapidly exhaust combusted gas. Sparkplug or diesel engine kind of auto ignition could be achieved on the hot air, vaporized fuel mixture.
  • a high compression ratio allows in principle to achieve high efficiencies for the Carnot cycle. Operating at high rpms allows the engine to achieve work without involving large forces. Lacking scraping parts allows very fast rotation without wear. Coupling the device with above discussed "Heat exchange with internal use of rotational energy" provision would allow to recover part of the heat of the exhaust gases that otherwise would be lost, thus providing heat to warm up and evaporate the incoming air / liquid fuel mixture.
  • Provisions to use openings in the side plates such as 142 and 143 in figure 14 enabling to give access to volumes at certain moments in the vane's rotation allowing fuel injection, exposure to spark plugs, exit burned gases etc. are considered within the scope of the invention.
  • This embodiment incorporates a rectangular single vane with two of its opposite sides each connected to a telescopic bearing linear motion based version of the vane positioning means while the associated linear motions take place in parallel vertical planes.
  • Each linear motion based vane positioning means is equipped with counterbalance means such as shown in figure 10.
  • a support frame holds two pairs of bearings each fulfilling the role of the cylinder pair 61 and 62 shown in figure 6 having the linear motion provision connecting to the vane on one side and its counter balancing provision on the other side.
  • a teethed wheel couples directly to a short rod means that pass through said bearings connecting provisions on both sides of the bearings.
  • Chains link the rotations of these teethed wheels to other teethed wheel mounted near the extremities of a single long rod means positioned at a sufficient far away distance to avoid it to cause obstruction of moving parts.
  • This long rod means enables to synchronize the motions on both sides of the blade.
  • the chain connections will be hanging on the vertical positioned teethed wheels which is favorable with regards to the effect of gravity on a chain. Equipping the blade with end disks such as 287 in figure 28 and an enclosure according to the invention constitutes an economic blower with a potentially very high fluid displacement per revolution.
  • Taking a partially enclosed open loop configuration with a narrow slit enables to create a narrow sheet of moving fluid highly suitable for heat exchange applications that favor a large fluid surface area contacting a high speed fluid flow.
  • Two such narrow slit equipped blowers positioned perpendicular to eachother can create perpendicular flows on alternate sides of a thin square or rectangular sheet separation. Stacking such sheets and alteratingly blocking access to a sheet in one of the two perpendicular directions enables to create an economic microchannel heat exchanger.
  • this tenth preferred embodiment uses the same methods and pratices for non- energy related applications having the primary goal to create safe visual motion of potentially large objects to attrack attention, such as bill board application.
  • a preferred embodiment uses the stacked vane windmill concept shown in figure 20 hanging it indoors upside down from the ceiling of a building.
  • the structure of poles such as the vertical poles 2015 and 2016 can now be replace by wires using gravity to maintain the integrety of the structure.
  • This embodiment is a floating single vane turbine with cross provision and linear motion drives and is shown in figure 32 specifically subfigure 3205. It applies telescopic bearings an interrupted leg and an uninterrupted leg for the associated cross provision, shell provision sliding means and a rack and pinion provision to couple an electric generator to the linear motion.
  • the embodiment has a gimbal provision with rotation of the support beam and a ponton structure featuring the vane or hull with a synchronized rotational freedom of the groove provision and two ponton or floating devices at the extremeties of the rack carrying leg of the cross that is perpendicular on the vane or hull.
  • the embodiment uses sliding means as shown in figure 31, a ponton carrying triangular structure as shown in figure 30 while the hull or vane structure is shown in figure 29 and details of the rack and pinion means are shown in figure 39 and 40.

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Abstract

The invention converts various forms of linear motion or physical state gradients of a fluid into or from energy associated with mechanical energy such as rotation It enables a wide range of applications from novel wind turbines, forms of hydro-, tidal-, wave- and ocean energy extraction, aircraft propulsion, watercraft propulsion, fans, blowers, heat pumps, air conditioning, pumps, compressors to vacuum cleaners Conversion according to the invention involves smooth, low entropy change transitions by applying a good impedance match between its mechanical provision and the fluid, addressing most of the economic and environmental problems associated with current state of the art technologies The invention uses basically the drag force to act on a vane which axis undergoes a circular motion while a mechanical provision optimizes the blade's angle of rotation around said axis in relationship to the direction of the fluid stream.

Description

Patent Cooperation Treaty Application of
Jacob Mettes for
Energy Conversion to or from Rotational Motion
This PCT application claims the filing date from Provisional Patent Application no.: 60/922,022 filed 04/05/2007 which is included herein by reference
1 Keywords alternative energy, wind, hydro, propulsion, aircraft, watercraft, fan, blower, wave energy, OPTEC, tidal, pump, compressor, heat pump, air conditioning, refrigeration, pneumatic motor, hydraulic motor, air motor, vacuum cleaner, internal, external, combustion, engine, billboard.
2 Index
1 Keywords
2 Index
3 State of the Art
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Economy of scale
3.3 State of the art focus
3.4 Characteristics, environmental side effects
4 The Invention
4.1 Objects and advantages
4.2 List of figures
4.3 Basic Motion
4.4 Vane Positioning Means
4.4.1 Introduction
4.4.2 External spur gear
4.4.3 Internal spur gear
4.4.4 Gearbox
4.4.5 Linear motions
4.4.5.1 Linear motions using telescopic bearings
4.4.6 Slot and bearing
4.4.7 Other
4.5 Counter Balance, Number of Vanes, Center of mass, Means to assure continuous motion, Flexibility
4.5.1 Introduction
4.5.2 Mirror image symmetry
4.5.3 Multiple vanes
4.5.4 Counter balance
4.5.5 Floating devices
4.5.6 Flexibility
4.5.6.1 Insert enabling rotation around a length axis
4.5.6.2 Gimbal and rotation provision around support beam
4.6 Enclosures
4.6.1 Introduction
4.6.2 Closed loop systems
4.6.3 Open loop systems
4.6.4 Leak tightness
4.6.5 Heating and cooling
4.6.6 Converting rotational energy into a temperature difference
4.6.7 Converting a temperature difference into rotational energy
4.6.8 Heat exchange with internal use of rotational energy
4.7 Means to Connect to the Vane Rotation/Positioning Provisions 4.7.1 Introduction 4.7.2 Coupling directly to provisions rotating around the main axis
4.7.3 Coupling directly to provisions rotating around a secondary axis
4.7.4 Coupling directly to provisions undergoing linear motion
4.7.4.1 Linear gearbox
4.7.4.2 Uninterrupted rack and pinion provision
4.8 Power Electronics
4.9 Yaw Provisions
4.10 Applications Overview
4.10.1 Introduction
4.10.2 Conversion of rotational mechanical energy from or into translational energy of a fluid
4.10.3 Conversion of rotational mechanical energy from or into energy associated with a pressure or temperature difference in an open loop system
4.10.4 Conversion of rotational mechanical energy from or into energy associated with a temperature difference between mentioned wall heat sink areas in a closed loop system
4.1 1 Appendices
4.1 1.1 Appendix A: Estimation of the power generated by the wind/water motor.
4.11.2 Appendix B: Estimation of the power increase operating at non-uniform rotational speed.
4.1 1.3 Appendix C: Effects related to the distance of a position on the blade to the blade's axis.
4.1 1.4 Appendix D: Capacity Factor.
4.1 1.5 Appendix E: Single wide blade enclosure mathematical path description.
4.12 Preferred Embodiments
4.12.1 First preferred group of embodiments, windmill
4.12.2 Second preferred group of embodiments, kinetic drag turbine for water applications, sealed housing provision, linear gearbox
4.12.3 Third preferred group of embodiments, blower, vacuum pump, vacuum cleaner
4.12.4 Fourth preferred group of embodiments, heat pump
4.12.5 Fifth preferred group of embodiments, propulsion through air
4.12.6 Sixth preferred group of embodiments, partially enclosed water propulsion
4.12.7 Seventh preferred group of embodiments, unenclosed water propulsion
4.12.8 Eighth preferred group of embodiments, internal combustion engine
4.12.9 Nineth preferred embodiment, blower with vertical cross provisions
4.12.10 Tenth preferred group of embodiments, spinning billboard
4.12.1 1 Eleventh preferred group of embodiments, watermill 5 Claims
Summary / Abstract
3 State of the Art
3.1 Introduction
The functioning and basic principles behind wind turbines, various forms of hydro-, tidal-, wave- and ocean energy extraction, propeller based aircraft, watercraft propulsion, fans, blowers, heat pumps, air conditioning, pumps, compressors and vacuum cleaners are well known and described in an abundance of state of the art literature. Technological progress of these technologies, rooted in the very mature field of mechanical engineering, consists typically of small incremental steps toward barriers set by theoretical limits and economic reality. Recent increase in the use of alternative energy is more the result of the rising cost of fossil fuel, desire of energy independence and awareness of global warming than of technological breakthroughs.
3.2 Economy of scale
Noted in the literature is the observation that some of the alternative energy technologies inherently lack the ability to benefit significantly from the economy of scale. This can be readily understood when looking at the impact of scaling up the size of a wind turbine. Doubling the size of the turbine blade increases the swept area by a factor four while the volume of the materials used for the propeller, the supporting tower etc. increases with the cube, a factor eight. As a result, capital cost per generated kWh goes up rather than down when building larger devices. Also, mass production techniques are often ill suited for awkward shaped parts such as propeller blades. As such, these technologies lack the kind of explosive growth associated with some of mankind's most successful technologies.
3.3 State of the art focus
The general focus of modern, state of the art developments in alternative wind and water energy capture applications, is to increase the turbine efficiency which basically creates more compact devices. Such "physical" efficiency is defined as the ratio of the generated energy and the energy represented by the fluid stream that passes through the "swept" area. As an example, such developments are beneficial for high wind applications, however, they not necessarily provide a route toward successful exploitation of the vast majority of the free resource which requires "low wind and water speed technology". The latter is one of the current activities of the "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" DOE agency who expresses its goal in terms of a desired price per kWh rather than a physical device efficiency. This "economic" efficiency is appropriate when dealing with a "free" energy resource where the size of the swept area is, to a certain extend, less relevant.
3.4 Characteristics, environmental side effects
The remainder of this state of the art description shortly mentions characteristics and some of the negative, environmental type of side effects of state of the art technologies. The extend to which design change or improvements can reduce the impact of these type of effects without significantly affecting performance or cost is often very limited. It would require truly innovative, new technology in order to significantly improve on such issues. In absence of such new technology, progress in the state of the art is typically accomplished as series of incrementally small changes of fundamentally unchanged basic designs. wind turbine: high capital cost per kWh, technology does not scale well, bird kill, visual annoyance, low capacity factor, wake effects limits wind farms turbine density, difficulty to tap into more abundant but less energy dense resources. propulsion of air craft: noisy, relatively large size wings, hard to combine vertical take off and fast horizontal flight, low efficiency, high maintenance. the generation of streams of air or gas such as by fans, pumps, blowers and vacuum cleaners: noisy, low efficiency, lubricants cause contamination of airflow (unacceptable for blowers in applications such as fuel cells), wear, high maintenance. hydroelectric: dislocation of people, fish kill, disturbance of salmon migration patterns, dissolved methane greenhouse gas release and sediment issues, difficulty to tap into more abundant, but less energy dense low head or less environmentally problematic resources. ocean currents and streams: low energy density, high capital investment. wave energy and tidal energy: high capital investment. propulsion of water craft such as boats and submarines: noise, cavitation, large signature
(military), low efficiency. generation of streaming water, pump: noise, low efficiency, wear. hot air engine: low efficiency. pneumatic, air motor: noisy, low efficiency, high maintenance. gas pump/compressor: noisy, high maintenance, contaminates gas stream. hydraulic motor: noisy, low efficiency, high maintenance. liquid pump: noisy, low efficiency, high maintenance. liquid fuel internal combustion engine: very noisy, high maintenance, low efficiency, air pollution. external combustion steam engine: noisy, low efficiency.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OPTEC: cost prohibitive. geothermal: high capital cost, high maintenance. heat pump, refrigeration, air conditioning: noisy, low efficiency.
4 The Invention 4.1 Objects and Advantages
The technology converts energy associated with linear motion of wind or water streams into energy associated with mechanical rotation and vise versa. Conversion according to the technology involves smooth, low entropy change transitions enabling the use of simple inexpensive device materials not required to have extreme properties such as ultra low mass density or high material strength. Converting, this way, energy from linear motion of wind or water streams addresses many of the economic and environmental problems associated with current state of the art technologies ranging from difficulties extracting economically energy from most free, alternative resources to environmental impact such as noise, bird or fish kill, etc. associated with high speed rotation of wind and water turbines or propellers. Converting energy associated with mechanical rotation into linear motion of a fluid while avoiding high entropy changes opens completely new ways for air, or water craft propulsion, much less troubled by poor efficiency or environmental problems. Similar advantages are encountered applying the technology on fluids undergoing a phase change with its own wide range of applications.
4.2 List of figures
Fig. 1 Sailboat on circular path.
Fig. 2 Forces and velocities.
Fig. 3 Motion pattern provided by external spur gear mechanism.
Fig. 4 Motion pattern provided by gear combination with an internal spur gear.
Fig. 5 Motion pattern using gearboxes.
Fig. 6 Motion pattern using linear constrains on a cross shaped provision.
Fig. 7 Motion pattern using a slot and large bearing provision.
Fig. 8 Provision to fix the center of mass in a twin arrangement.
Fig. 9 Provision to fix the center of mass by counterweight.
Fig. 10 Provision to fix the center of mass when using cross shaped linear constrains.
Fig. 11 Graph from mathematical description of a vane enclosure.
Fig. 12 Positions and displaced volumes in a fully enclosed structure.
Fig. 13 Positions and displaced volumes in a partially enclosed structure.
Fig. 14 Sealing for enclosed vane.
Fig. 15 Direct coupling to rotation around main axis.
Fig. 16 Rack and pinion on slotted provision.
Fig. 17 Intersection of rack and pinion on sliding provision.
Fig. 18 Yaw provision changing the vane angle.
Fig. 19 Yaw provision changing the position of the secondary axis.
Fig. 20 Stacked vanes vertical axis wind mill with cross provisions and secondary axis driven generator.
Fig. 21 One side open profile cross provision.
Fig. 22 One side open profile cross provision with slide.
Fig. 23 Exploded view of slide provision
Fig. 24 Part of the supporting cables for preferred embodiment 1 windmill
Fig. 25 Preferred embodiment 2, floating turbine with cross provision and linear motion drives.
Fig. 26 Preferred embodiment 2, detailed view of cross centre floating turbine.
Fig. 27 Preferred embodiment 2, detailed view pinion driven floating turbine slide.
Fig. 28 Fourth preferred embodiment, fully enclosed, minimal leakage, slide provision driven heat pump device.
Fig. 29 Hull or blade for eleventh preferred embodiment.
Fig. 30 Ponton provision for eleventh preferred embodiment.
Fig. 31 Sliding provision for eleventh preferred embodiment.
Fig. 32 Assembly of eleventh preferred embodiment.
Fig. 33 Shell provision for cross sliding constrains.
Fig. 34 Motion pattern for cross with shell provision.
Fig. 35 Telescopic bearing provision.
Fig. 36 Telescopic bearing cage displacements.
Fig. 37 Interrupted and uninterrupted leg cross shaped means. Fig. 38 Linear gearbox provision.
Fig. 39 Rack and pinion on uninterrupter leg of cross shaped means.
Fig. 40 Bearings for rack and pinion coupling.
4.3 Basic Motion
The characteristic motion pattern that forms the basis of the invention can be understood by following the sail position of a sailboat that describes a circular path, see figure 1. The position of the boat on the circle is defined by the angle φ while the sail position is given by an angle φ/2. The wind in figure 1 blows in the direction indicated by the arrow. It hits the moving sail as the apparent wind under a certain angle and gets deflected which results into a force perpendicular on the sail. This force can be decomposed into a component tangent to the circular path and an axial component. The tangential component performs work as the sail propagates over its circular path thus extracting energy from the wind.
A circle is mathematically defined by three scalar entities x, y and r being the coordinates of the center and the radius. To define the above motion pattern requires beside the definition of a circular path also an angle θ that defines the direction of the wind. Instead of defining the pattern by the four scalar entities x, y, r and θ, it turns out to be very useful to use two fixed points A and B with the coordinates (-r,0) and (r,0). It can be shown that the two lines AP and BP that connect the points A and B to any point P on the circle are always at a 90 degree angle with each other. The center of the circle (0,0) is hereunder associated with the "main axis" which is a line through the origin perpendicular to the plane of figure 1. A "secondary axis" is one of the two lines, parallel to the main axis going either through point A or B.
Appendix A gives a mathematical derivation of the amount of extracted energy given the geometry, wind speed etc. shown in figure 2. Appendix B calculates the efficiency increase obtained by rotating a single vane (sail) faster through the section where it is basically "against the wind". Appendix C refines the model of appendix A entering the impact of differences of the apparent wind over the width of the vane. Appendix D calculates the capacity factor for a given average wind speed and vane geometry, assuming a Raleigh wind distribution and a 1/7 power law relationship for the wind at different heights. Appendix E gives a mathematical description of the path taken by the edge of a single wide vane used when enclosing devices like blowers and heat exchangers etc.
4.4 Vane Positioning Means
4.4.1 Introduction Various mechanisms according to the invention are described hereunder to provide the constrains that impose the basic vane positioning on the vane's axis circular path described above. In practically all cases, the mechanism can be reversed from extracting energy from translational motion of a fluid to providing energy in the form of the rotational motion to create translational motion of the fluid. The desired end result in the latter case could either be the actual translational motion of the fluid in case of, e.g., a ventilator or could be the generation of an associated force in case of the propulsion of a craft.
4.4.2 External spur gear Figure 3 shows a spur gear based mechanism involving a fixed spur gear 31, a revolving spur gear 32 which axis describes mentioned circular motion where the teeth ratio of the latter and the first is 2: 1. In between these two spur gears is an idling spur gear 33 whose role is to accomplish a reversal of the direction of rotation required for this version of vane 34 positioning means. Number of teeth and position of the idle gear 33 is hereto not critical as long as gear's 33 axis participates in the same mentioned circular motion as that of the axis of gear 32. Vane 34 is fixed to or coupled to revolving external spur gear 32 so that the axis of rotation of vane 34 is coaxial with the axis of gear 32 while its rotation will be identical to the rotation of gear 32.
4.4.3 Internal spur gear Figure 4 shows a spur gear based mechanism using only two gears, a fixed spur gear 41 and an internal spur gear 42 thus establishing the required direction of rotation. The ratio of the number of teeth of gear 42 and gear 41 for is 2: 1. Vane 43 is fixed to or coupled to gear 42, so that they undergo the same rotation and have the same axis of rotation.
A practical embodiment could have gear 41 fixed on, e.g., a housing leaving its center free to pass a bearing supported axle. This axle connects to an arm provision enabling to connect to another bearing positioned at the center of gear 42 fixing the distance between these centers at the length of the radius of gear 41.
An alternative embodiment could hold gear 42 within a bearing that is positioned in a larger body that centers around the center of gear 41. Either such bearings could be a thin wide diameter bearing.
4.4.4 Gearbox Figure 5 shows a mechanism using gear boxes to link the angle of rotation on the above mentioned circle around main axis 51 to the angle of rotation of the rotating vane 56. This arrangement uses an axis 52 perpendicular to the main axis of rotation 51. Axis 52 connects axis 51 to axis 52 with a 1 : 1 ratio gearbox 53. Axis 52 further connects to axis 54 through another gearbox 55 with a teeth ratio 1 :2 making the vane 56 spin twice as slow. In analogy with the above mechanism based on two external spur gears and an idler gear, the actual rotation speed of the idler, as well as of axis 52, is not critical as long as the overall result of the ratios is a vane 56 rotating at half the speed of the rotation of the vane's axis 54 around the main axis 51 and in the right direction. Figure 5 shows an axis 52 that has an offset toward the plane containing parallel axis 51 and 54 which can be obtained by using helical gear in the gearboxes. Symmetry can be obtained by using a similar offset at the other side of the plane for gearboxes 57 and 58 situated at the other extremity of the vane 56.
4.4.5 Linear motions Figure 6 shows a mechanism not based on gearwheels but on linear motions of sliding means 63 and 64 constrained to the perpendicular legs of a moving means 65 that has a cross shaped pattern. Said constrained linear motion allows each of the two sliding means to move up and down within its leg of the cross shaped means 65. Cylinders 61 and 62 are rigidly attached to respectively sliding means 63 and 64. The axis of cylinder 61 and 62 are positioned perpendicular to the plane of the cross shaped means 65 and their positions are not subjected to any of the here described motions. However, rotation of each of the cylinders, with its attached sliding means, around the cylinder's fixed axis is allowed. This arrangement restricts the motion of the center of the cross shaped means 65 to a circle where the circle's center is situated in between both cylinder axis on the above define main axis. Note that the two cylinder axis coincide with the above mentioned two secondary axis. Moreover, the arrangement makes the orientation of the cross in space follows the desired half angle, φ/2, relationship with the angle φ of rotation on the said circle. Vane 66 is rigidly connected to the cross shaped means 65 with the axis of the vane coaxial with the axis of the cross 65 that is perpendicular to the plane of the cross and passes through the cross' center. The direction of the vane is fixed relative to the two legs of the cross 65.
A variation of providing vane positioning means by using constrains on linear motions as disclosed above consists of providing means 65 where the angle between the two legs differs from 90 degrees. When this angle is tunable it can provide a way according to the invention to change the yaw as disclosed under "Yaw Provisions".
The sides of cross shaped moving means 65 provide two pairs of outer parallel boundaries constraining each of the sliding means 63 and 64 to a linear motion within the legs of the cross. Each sliding means has a pair of inner parallel boundaries enabling it to be "slidingly" clamped in between one of such pair of outer parallel boundaries allowing only one degree of freedom. In figure 6 the outer parallel boundaries are kept in place by being connected to each other at the ends of the cross. Figure 33 shows shell provisions, 331-334, enabling such motion keeping such outer parallel boundaries in position all over the length of the legs of the cross. The C shaped cross section of the shown shell provision can be replace by other shapes like a U shape, etc. Sliding means 63 and 64 are shown in figure 33 as sliding means 335 and 336 while groove provisions 337 and 338 are shown in respectively sliding means 335 and shell provision 331 as part of a hereunder disclosed telescopic bearing provision representing an option to enable sliding. Groove provision 338 can be considered an outer parallel boundary and groove provision 337 an inner parallel boundary. Shown cage means 339 and 3310 are also part of such telescopic bearing provision. Figure 34 shows subsequent stages during a period of motion of the version presented in figure 33 which should be viewed from left to right going from top to bottom. The two arrows in figure 34 point at the equivalent of cylinders 61 and 62 in figure 6.
4.4.5.1 Linear motions using telescopic bearings A telescopic bearing provision enables one degree of linear freedom of motion while blocking the remaining twee degrees of linear motion and, as illustrated in figure 35, consists of: a pair of interconnected outer parallel boundaries, such as groove provision 358 in shell provision 353, a pair of interconnected inner parallel boundaries, such as groove provision 359 in sliding means 351, a number of rolling means which can be a ball, such as 354, a roller or a bearing each contacting an inner and an outer parallel boundary, a cage provision which keeps the rolling means in a fixed position relative to the cage provision, allowing the rolling means only to rotate, such as the 352 and 355 components in figure 35 that hold ball 354 having openings allowing part of the ball to stick out but not to pass through.
Lining up a number of rolling means along the length of the said parallel boundaries allows to keep inner and outer parallel boundaries parallel to each other. Given the above arrangement, the cage speed of motion relative to the boundaries will be half the speed of the boundaries relative to each other. In the case that the rolling means consist of a roller or bearing, the groove provision shown as cylindrical surface in figure 35 can be replaced by a flat surface. The shown setup in figure 35 has a ball residing within the constrains of two cylindrical grooves constraining the ball's motion to a single degree of freedom along the length of the groove. Constraining rollers or bearings using their outer race as a roller, in between two flat surfaces leaves two degrees of freedom, which can be compensated for by doubling the number of such flat surfaces, rollers or bearings and placing the flat surfaces under, e.g., a 90 degree angle.
In the case that bearings are used as rolling means, a provision that keeps the inner race of such bearings at fixed positions relative to each other constitutes also a cage provision according to the invention.
Optionally, the telescopic bearing provision can be equipped with stopper means that assure proper alignment of the cage provision along the length of the groove provision at certain moments during the periodic motion of the various forms of linear motions based vane positioning means. Figure 35 shows such stopper means as 356 and 357 residing respectively at the extremities of sliding means 351 and the shell provisions 353. The length of the involved inner boundaries, outer boundaries means and cage provision have to be optimized enabling the stopper means to be timed properly. Said length can simultaniously be optimized to provide to maxime support for the involved means without obstruction the various motions. In one extreme position cage provision 352 bottoms out against the stopper 356 on sliding means 351 at the end of a slot 3510 in the cage provision, at the other extreme cage provision 352 bottoms out against the stoppers 357 on shell provision 353 at the end of the cage provision.
The cage provision enables roller means to cross an interruption or gap in theit boundaries carrying some of the roller means within its enclosure while the cage provision stays aligned by other roller means that are still contacting their boundaries.
Where figure 35 shows a single pair of opposing linear bearings, more such pairs tilted at different angles can provide additional strength of the overall structure.
Figure 36 shows subsequent stages during a period of motion of the version presented in figure 35 which should be viewed from left to right going from top to bottom. The two arrows in figure 6c point at the equivalent of cylinders 61 and 62 in figure 6.
Figure 37 shows how alternated shell provisions 375 and 374 can be used as the equivalent of the sliding means 63 and 64 in figure 6 in combination with using interrupted or uninterrupted alternated slider provisions, respectively 371 & 372 and 373, to make up the equivalent of cross shaped means 65 in figure 6. Besides showing how shell and sliding provisions roles can be exchanged, figure 37 shows how one leg of the cross 373 can be configured without interruption or gap by lowering it below the plane of the parts 371 & 372 of the remaining, interrupted, leg.
4.4.6 Slot and bearing Figure 7 shows a combination of linear and rotational restrictions providing the motion according to the invention. A smaller bearing 72 rotates with its center within the inner radius of a larger bearing 71 where the axis of both bearings are parallel. The axis of the smaller bearing is maintained at a fixed distance D from the axis of the larger bearing by "moon" shaped disk means 75. A disk provision 76 equipped with slotted means 74 and is situated inside the inner radius of the smaller bearing 72. The length of the slot 74 is four times said distance D while the middle of the slot coincides with the axis of the smaller bearing 72. The vane is behind the shown parts in figure 7 and the vane's axis is coaxial with the axis of smaller bearing 72 while the vane is fixed to slotted means 74 keeping it parallel to said slotted means 74. This sets the constrains for the motion described by the axis of the, not shown, vane to the circular path according to the invention. The actual positioning of the angular position of the vane can now be done by keeping the plane of the vane, and thus the slot 74, passing through a fixed point situated on the said circular path. This is achieved by cylinder pin provision 73 whose axis is perpendicular to the plane of the bearings and whose diameter fits tightly within the width of the slot 74. A similar arrangement can be made at the other extremity of the vane, optionally creating a 90 degrees phase shift between the plane of the vane and the second slot thus eliminating any ambiguity in the vane's position. 4.4.7 Other Alternative mechanism to impose the motion according to the invention includes the use of a chain connection connecting two teethed wheels with a teeth ratio of 2: 1 similar to the case of the external spur wheels presented above, where the chain basically replaces the idler gear wheel. Other possibilities according to the invention are structures that combine parts of the above mentioned mechanism or obvious equivalents of gear wheels, linear motions and the like such as replacing a bearing by circular track and setting gear ratios by track and pinion provisions. Rotational motion can be supported by various kind of bearings but also, e.g., a circular track supporting rolling provisions.
4.5 Counter Balance, Number of Vanes, Center of mass. Means to assure continuous motion. Flexibility
4.5.1 Introduction Rotating possibly bulky and awkward structures is most conveniently done when the rotation is performed around the structure's center of mass. There are a number of ways to assure coincidence between the axis of rotation and the center of mass, shown hereunder.
Besides the center of mass issue, there is also an issue associated with the need to continue the motion specifically when the vane moves against the direction of the fluid stream positioned for minimal drag resistance, see, e.g., figure 1 for φ is 180 degrees. Twin or multiple vane setups not only stabilize the center of mass, but also make the achievement of this coincide with can also move one vane against the direction of the fluid stream using part of the force applied on the other vane or vanes at that point in the rotation, thus causing the coincidental achievement of both these issues. A relative high speed of rotation, such as achieved by reducing the load during part of the cycle as described in appendix B, and a significant moment of inertia can also push a vane through the point where it moves against the stream. Specifically single vane setups that extract energy from a fluid stream can use a small part of the acquired energy to push the vane through mentioned point, storing energy in a flywheel or using electricity to power a motor to perform this task, e.g., using the generator as a motor to gain rotational speed prior to going against the direction of the flow.
A separate issue is that of flexibility of the structure with regards to tilting, deformation, etc. of components and structures when exposed to large forces and design methods and features to address this without overly relying on heavy and rigid constructions.
4.5.2 Mirror image symmetry: One way to achieve such coincidence is by creating a mirror image symmetry by introducing a twin structure. Figure 8 illustrates such symmetry in the case of gear boxes, showing essentially a twin version of the structure of figure 5. The main axis 51 in figure 5 is 81 in figure 8, satellite axis 54 is 82, and vane 56 is 84 while a twin vane 85 is added with its satellite axis 83 and the associated gearboxes.
4.5.3 Multiple vanes: A structure with three vanes can achieve above cited coincidence by distributing the axis of the vanes over a circle with 120 degree angles in between neighboring vanes. A similar situation can be created for multiple blades.
4.5.4 Counter balance: Mass can be arranged in a manner that the center of mass of the overall rotating structure remains fixed. When the vane and its associated positioning provisions are rotating, one can arrange an equivalent passive, not vane related, mass to undergo the same rotation providing a weight distribution with the center of its mass at the opposite side of the center of rotation than that of the center of weight of the vane provision. Figure 9 shows such a provision where material has been remove at 91 and 92 to counterweight mass associated the vane fixed at the other, non-visible, side of 93 which is the slotted provision 76 priory discussed in figure 7.
Figure 10 shows how to counterbalance a setup as shown in figure 6. The only fixed, not moving, entities in this setup are the two secondary axis coinciding with the axis of cylinders 61 and 62. No physical provision is available to attach means to make a rotational motion around what would be the main axis, situated in between the two secondary axis. Cross shaped provision 65, vane 66, slider means 63 and 64, cylinder 61 and 62 can be found back in figure 10 as respectively 103, 106, 104, 105, 101 and 102. Where cylinder 101 was rigidly attached to slide cylinder 104, it now also rigidly attaches on its other end to slide 108 such that slide 104 and 108 are perpendicular to each other. Slide 105, cylinder 102 and slide 109 are positioned in a similar relationship. The slides 108 and 109 are placed inside another cross shaped provision 107 which forces cross 107 to make a motion that mirrors the motion of cross 103. When crossed and slides are made identical, the center of mass of the structure containing both crosses and their slides will be fixed. Cross 107 can be made heavier so that it balances not only cross 103 but also vane 106 and other provisions.
Besides as serving as a counterweight, cross 107 can also support another vane creating a stacked twin setup or a larger stack involving a multitude of vanes.
4.5.5 Floating devices: A completely different way, according to the invention, is to avoid problems associated with not having a fixed center of mass for moving parts of the structure by making it floating, such as described in detail in the second preferred embodiment and hereunder in section 4.5.6.
4.5.6 Flexibility:
The above mentioned feature that deviations of an exact 90 degrees in the angle of the cross provision are possible means that the associated constructions will not have to be made with a very tight tolerance. This is highly desirable and reduces cost and material while reducing friction, wear and consequently maintenance. Realistic devices exposed to forces of nature such as wind, water and waves need to design in a degree of flexibility as will be further disclosed for the invention hereunder in subsections 4.4.6.1 and 4.4.6.2. The cases used to illustrate the methods to design in flexibility according to the inventions are taken from the kinetic drag water turbine which might be exposed to extreme forces and waves. However, the disclosed methods in 4.4.6.1 and 4.4.6.2 can be used for basically all cateories of the invention's linear motion based devices such as windturbines and blowers.
4.4.6.1 Insert enabling rotation around a length axis Figure 29 shows a pair of interrupted legs provisions 2901 and 2902 of a cross shaped means which through thrust bearings such as 2904 are mounted on an insert provision enabling the leg provisions to freely rotating around its length axis which eliminates torque forces and reduces friction on the linear motion of the associated telescopic bearing provision. Thrust bearing such as 2904 can be a sleeve type of bearing and consist of corrosion resistant "plastic" kind of material given that the bearing is not required to make high rpms. The insert provision is rigidly mounted on vane or blade 2903 by supports means such as 2905 and 2909. Figure 29 also shows a synchronisation provision consisting of connecting poles 2906 & 2907 and connector 2908, which aligns telescopic bearing associated boundary provisions or grooves on the two members of the interrupted legs provisions 2901 and 2902, within limits, e.g., set by support means such as 2909. More regarding figure 29 will be explained hereinafter in the eleventh preferred embodiment
4.4.6.2 Gimbal and rotation provision around support beam Figure 31 shows the sliding means consisting of the support beam 3108, with connection provisions 3101 at its extremities, a generator or alternator provision 3103 to generate electricity, a gimbal with rotational provision 3102 and the actual sliding means 3104 and 3105. The gimbal with rotational provision 3102 is rotatingly mounted on stub 3106 situated on sliding means 3104 while the involved rotational axis coincides with one of the two priorly presented axis of cylinder 61 or 62, see figure 6. Generator or alternator provision 3103 is rotatingly mounted on stub 3112 situated on sliding means 3105 while the involved rotational axis coincides with the remaining of the two priorly presented axis of cylinder 61 or 62, see figure 6.
The connection provisions 3101 enable to secure the position of the support beam by, e.g., cables and have freedom through bearings 3113 to freely rotate coaxially with the length axis of support beam 3108.
Gimbal with rotational provision 3102 provides rotational freedom to support beam 3108 around its length axis through a bearing means 3107 that is mounted in a gimbal arrangement involving axis 3109 that is situated perpendicular on the plane that confines the length axis of support beam 3108. In spite of the introduced degrees of freedom, the length of the piece of support beam that is rigidly mounted to the generator or alternator provision 3103 between provisions 3103 and 3102 remains rigorously fixed. Use of the provisions of figure 31 will be explained further hereinafter in the eleventh preferred embodiment.
4.6 Vane Enclosures
4.6.1 lntroductionA partially or fully enclosing wall that tightly fits the path described by the edges of a single wide vane that makes the basic motion according to the invention constitutes a number of additional novel methods and devices. The upper half of the associated shape of the enclosing wall is shown in figure 11, while the mathematical description is given in appendix 5. The hereunder mentioned pointed part of the wall's structure is indicated as 111 in figure 11 and corresponds to the coordinates (-1 ,0) in that figure. Also indicated in figure 11 as 113 is a section S situated between the wall structure points 111 and 112 respectively with coordinated (-1 ,0) and (-1 ,2). This section S is present on the top side shown in figure 11 that will be referred to as SA while there is a similar section SB present on the mirror image bottom side not shown in figure 11. In the hereunder described applications, the vane makes its motion within an immobile enclose, however, application with an immobilized vane with provisions to make the enclosure move according to create similar effects is considered within the scope of the invention. Where a infinitely flat vane would constitute a perfect device enabling very tight tolerances, any practical vane will have some width. When the vane is wedged with very sharp edges, such edges can move in close proximity to the wall. For mechanical strength is might be desirable to provide the vane with some width around its vane axis which is going to determine to what degree the mentioned pointed part 111 of the wall structure has to deviate from the exact theoretical shape, see Appendix E and figure 11. A similar kind of deviation applies for the hereunder presented open loop systems where the pointed part 111 is configured as a separate divider that also can be beneficially shaped as a sharp edges slanted wedged structure.
4.6.2 Closed loop systems Figure 12 shows how the rotating wide single vane, 122, and its fully enclosing wall 121 allow to isolate a volume that changes size as a function of the angle of rotation of the vane's axis on the circle that forms the basis of the motion according to the invention. In fact, at any given moment during the vane's axis rotation two or three isolated volumes are present in various stages of expansion or contraction. All volumes evolve in a similar matter during the rotation but with a different phase shift. The evolution of a volume can be followed through the sequence of pictures that makes up figure 12. In figure 12a, a new volume is about to be created at the lower side of the said pointed structure 123 in the wall 121. In figure 12b, the new volume is hardly visible as 124, where it is clearly present as the lower left dark grey area 125 in figure 12c. The dark grey area continues to grow as 126, 127 and 128 respectively in figures 12d, 12e and 12f while it keeps being connected to mentioned lower side of the pointed part of the wall's structure 123. The sequence can be continued by looking again at figure 12a where the dark grey area of figure 12f is now represented in figure 12a by the light grey bottom half area 129. The horizontal vane 122 position of figure 12a and 12f represents the moment where the connection with the said lower side of the said pointed structure 123 is broken upon further vane axis rotation. In figure 12b, the now light gray area 1210 still expands further into area 1211 in figure c where its reaches its maximum size. Hereafter, the volumes shrinks as 1212, 1213 and 1214 in respectively figure 12d, 12e and 12f. In figure 12f, the shrinking volume connects with the upper side of the tip of the pointed part 1215. Now further evolution is again followed by going to figure 12a where the light grey area of figure 12f is now represented by the white upper half area 1216. Further shrinking of the now white area continues as 1217, 1218 and 1219 in figures 12b, 12c, and 12d while it is no longer really visible in figure 12e and finally disappears in figure 12f.
In the above, it has been shown how said volume initially connects to one side of the pointed part of the wall's enclosure, starts to expand, reaches a point where the expansion rate is the largest at which point it starts to disconnects from said bottom side of the pointed part of the wall's enclosure, to end up connecting to the opposite side of the pointed structure while decreasing the size of the volume. The just described sequence of events during a rotational cycle according to the invention constitutes the basic steps associated with pumping, compressing, heating and cooling.
A fully enclosed device such as shown in figure 12 constitute basically a closed loop system. The wall sections SA and SB in closed loop systems that contain a phase changing fluid can be configured to act as heat sink areas SA and SB. Above discussed isolated volumes are either in contact with heat sink area SA or with heat sink area SB and at one point during the rotation with none of them. The provisions described hereunder in the section "Open Loop Systems" for the there described divider means 137 are also applicable for the sharp edge G of the enclosing wall structure at point 111, figure 11. These provision deal with the fact that the vane has a finite thickness, requiring to not fully extend the mentioned sharp edge G to point 111. The thickness of the vane and associated not fully extending edge G will impact the size a gap created by these measures.
Provisions as to apply an O-ring seal when coupling rotational motion to a closed loop system in order to prevent leaks are considered to fall within the scope of the invention as well the sealing of non- moving static parts of the overall housing.
4.6.3 Open loop systems Creating openings in the wall structure enables to use the invention for open loop systems such as shown in figure 13 where sections SA and SB are completely unenclosed. Figure 13a shows a fluid stream entering in the direction of the arrow through a rectangular cross section channel represented by the structures 133 and 134. The partially enclosed structure 131 tightly encloses the edges of moving vane 132, but leaves out wall sections SA and SB. The stream of fluid exits the device in the direction of the arrow though rectangular cross section represented by the structures 135 and 136. Snapshots of various phases of vane motion are shown in figure 13a-13f. Divider means 137 in figure 13 provides a separation between the inlet and outlet being, at one end, sealingly connected to both the inlet channel part 134 and outlet channel part 135. The other end of rectangular shaped divider means 137 has a knife shaped edge that could theoretically extend up to point 111 shown in figure 11 in case of an infinitely thin vane. In practice, the vane has some finite thickness δ which is likely to be the largest in the middle of the vane at the position of the vane's rotational axis. For enclosed applications, a vane with knife shaped, sharp edges is preferable as it provides a high degree of isolation of the separated volumes. As a consequence, the divider can only extend close to a point (-1 - δ, 0) instead of point 111 where the closeness of this extension depends on the tolerances associated with the construction of the device. Alternatively, depending on the application, the sharp edge of the divider 137 can be made of a flexible material that can be compressed slightly by the vane, thus providing a good isolation of the volumes separated by the vane with the downside of introducing friction and possible wear. Another option according to the inventions is to vary divider 137's distance to 111 variable, providing an adaptation of the position of the sharp edge of the divider 137 linked to the rotational position of the axis of the vane φ, such as by using a CAM device. Leak tightness of the connection of 137 to 134 and 135 could be preserved using flexible provisions or sealing on sliding parts.
4.6.4 Leak tightness The leak tightness provided by the moving structure will set limits to the pressure differential that can be achieved for pumping or compressing.
A fully enclosed, closed loop device, with no openings in the enclosing wall, can be configured to vent the compressed volume into the neighboring expanding volume at the opposite side of the pointed part of the wall structure. Such venting will take place through the gap in between the side of the vane and the sharp edge of the said pointed structure of the wall that constitutes the enclosure. When the compression created by the decreasing volume is accompanied by a phase change of the contained fluid, which will then change from the gas phase into the liquid phase, it will be mainly liquid that is pressed through the said gap.
The presence of fluid in the liquid phase will typically increase the degree of leak tightness of the device, which enables to create larger pressure differences between isolated volumes created by such configured fully enclosed device. To enhance this effect, it might be helpful to position the device so that gravity will help to accumulate condensed fluid at the entrance of the said gap.
Where limits might be present for the pressure differential between volumes separated by the vane, such limitation does not have to exist for the pressure difference between such volumes and the atmospheric pressure present outside the enclosed device. Being totally enclosed, no in- or outlet ports have to be configured to connect enclosed volumes to the outside. Also, involved gear mechanisms, or other vane positioning provisions, can be sealingly isolated by a structure that is not involved by any of the discussed motions. The provision to couple to the mechanical rotational motion of the vane can either be accomplished by an O-ring seal around a rotating axis or, e.g., by interacting an alternating magnetic field with permanent magnets situated on the rotor of an electro motor.
Figure 14 shows a relatively leak tight configuration where the vane 141 is in between and sealingly connected to two disks 142 and 143. Apart from leaks at the sharp edges of the vane, leaks will occur at the rim of the enclosing wall structure, not shown in figure 14, that faces the two disks 142 and 143 separated by a tight gap.
The described device scales well toward larger sizes in the sense that a larger device will have a better ratio between the area of the vane and the length of the rim at the edge of the vane. As the internal leak rate likely is proportional to the length of the rim, a higher pressure differential can be created for a larger device.
Provisions such as using flexible material, such as rubber, for the vane, parts of the vane or for the edge of above discussed divider 137 to provide a better leak tightness are considered within the scope of current invention.
An option according to the invention is to hermetically seal blade, disks such as 287 in figure 28 and wall edges using ferrofluids addressing leaktightness and tolerance issues of non-contacting moving parts specifically for fully enclosed versions such as the heat exchanger. Associated sharp edges in close proximity to a flat or slightly curve surface enables to make strong inhomogeneous magnetic field featuring a large gradient favouring the containment of said magnetic ferro fluids.
4.6.5 Heating and cooling A closed loop, fully enclosed setup with given temperatures for wall heat sink areas SA and SB, can be filled with an amount of fluid that results in an average pressure in the device that sets the associated boiling/condensation point of the fluid in relationship, e.g., in between the temperatures of SA and SB. Taking fluid in or out the active volume of the device allows to adapt for changing temperatures of the wall heat sink areas SA and SB by adjusting the boiling/condensation point setting.
4.6.6 Converting rotational energy into a temperature difference Energy can be added to the device resulting in vane rotation which will cause a pressure difference between isolated volumes of fluid at different sides of the vane. This will cause gas phase fluid to condense in the volume where the pressure is raised above the boiling/condensation point and liquid phase fluid to evaporate in the volume where the pressure is below the boiling condensation point. The volume subject to condensation will give off the associated heat of condensation by heating the part of the enclosing wall with which it is in contact. Similarly, the volume subject to evaporation will obtain the associated heat of evaporation by cooling the part of the enclosing wall with which it is in contact. Specifically the heat sink wall areas SA and SB can be designed to enable large fluxes of heat while other wall areas can be designed to provide a high degree of thermal isolation. The overall result constitutes a heat pump transporting heat from one heat sink area of the wall to the other.
4.6.7 Converting a temperature difference into rotational energy When the two opposite sides of the pointed structure that is part of the enclosing wall are in connection with heat sinks at different temperatures, choosing the pressure and the associated boiling/condensation point in between said two different pressures will cause condensation in the volume in contact with the colder side of the wall and evaporation in of the volume in contact with the warmer side of the wall. This condensation and evaporation will give rise to a pressure difference across the vane resulting in its rotation.
4.6.8 Heat exchange with internal use of rotational energy The fully enclosed device filled with a fluid at an appropriate pressure can be configured without any coupling of the rotational motion to the outside. Energy extracted from a temperature difference will be used to increase the capacity to transport more heat. Such a device constitutes a heat exchanger that actively becomes the equivalent of an infinitely long heat exchanger. Such a device accomplishes its heat exchange role not by involving a large surface area, like the infinitely long device, but by actively creating temperature differences at the area at its disposal. The avoidance of a large area will avoid the associated radiation losses that otherwise would set limits on the performance of the device. Also, an infinitely long heat exchanger represent a barrier for the fluid associated to a pressure drop over the heat exchanger. The new device can accomplish this with a potentially small drop in pressure over the heat exchanger.
4.7 Means to Connect to the Vane Rotation/Positioning Provisions
4.7.1 IntroductionCategorized hereunder are a number of ways to achieve a mechanical coupling between rotational devices, such as motors or generators, and the various vane rotation/positioning provisions. Shown methods of coupling are examples and other coupling mechanism such as different types of gear wheels, belts, chain, slip based devices, linear motors or alternators, magnetic fields and the like are considered within the scope of the invention. Applications of the invention can already be created without any such mechanical coupling, for example a wind or water stream could drive various rotation/positioning provisions according to the invention displaying a bill board for advertisement.
4.7.2 Coupling directly to provisions rotating around the main axis. Figure 15 illustrates direct coupling between rotational devices, such as motor 151 to parts of the rotation/positioning provisions, such as rotating plate 154 that is constrained to rotate around the fixed main axis, 155. The actual coupling takes place through gear wheel 153 that is mounted on the motor axis 152. Gear wheel 152 couples to the teethed rim of plate 154. Figure 15 shows vane 158 operating in a blower device featuring the partial enclosure 159 based setup that is shown in figure 13 as 131. Figure 15 also illustrates the counterweighted means to fix the center of mass of the structure rotating around the main axis 155 as the cutout disk 157 where heavier material of the plate 154 is replaced by lighter material to obtain the associated balance. Figure 15 shows said coupling for a vane positioning means based on gear mechanism consisting of a set of external gear similar to the setup shown in figure 3, where 155 and 156 in figure 15 correspond to respectively 31 and 32 in figure 3. Similar couplings can be used for other vane positioning means according to the invention such as gear based provisions shown in figure 4 and gear box based provisions shown in figure 5 where, e.g., a coupling can be made to the housing of the gearbox. Analog coupling to chain based provisions and linear motion based provisions or combinations thereof can also be made. For example, the larger bearing 71 show in figure 7 constrains the moon shaped device 75 to a rotational motion around the axis of bearing 71 that constitutes in this case the, not physically present, main axis. Coupling of rotational devices to moon shaped device 75 can, for example, take place by using a teethed rim attached to device 75, e.g., at the side next to the bearing.
4.7.3 Coupling directly to provisions rotating around a secondary axis. Single slot based or combined linear motion on a cross based setups allow to couple rotational devices directly to the vane positioning provisions by acting on the rotation of the slider means around their fixed, above defined secondary axis of rotation. Figure 6 can be used to illustrate this way of coupling identifying the axis of cylinders 61 and 62 as coinciding with said fixed secondary axis. When slide device 63 is rigidly fixed to cylinder 61 and device 64 to 62, coupling a rotational device to establish rotation of one or both of these cylinders will create said coupling with said vane positioning provisions. Provisions such as using a planetary gear set to achieve rpms when the slider rotation is relatively slow are considered within the scope of the invention.
4.7.4 Coupling directly to provisions undergoing linear motion. It is possible to couple a sine wave frequency modulated type of rotational motion around a secondary axis to a linear motion shown in figure 16 as related to an individual slot 165 of slotted disk means 164 and using a rack 167 and pinion 168 provision. The same sine wave frequency modulated type of coupling can be provided by a piece of chain essentially with the length of such slot that is partially wrapped around a teethed wheel basically replacing rack 167 with the chain and pinion 168 with the teethed wheel. On the one hand, the ends of the chain are fixed at appropriate points on the moving structure linked to the vane. On the other hand, an endless chain could be placed on two teethed wheels connecting to at least one rotating means such as motors or generators that are placed at the appropriate points on the moving structure linked to the vane while the chain is rigidly fixed at a rotating cylinder fixed around one of the secondary axis. More details of this last arrangement is given hereunder in the second preferred embodiment representing a floating vane on a cross shaped provision.
Figure 17 shows how such type of coupling can be provided for a cross shaped provision where placing a rack provision along the length of one of the legs would block connection of the slide provision in the other leg with its associated provision on its secondary axis. Figure 17 shows how part of the rack can be left out leaving separate pieces 171 and 172 with a gap in between them while preserving the teeth alignment corresponding with an uninterrupted rack. The gap allows unblocked passage of, e.g., a cylinder situated on a secondary axis U, while shown provision consisting of linked pinions 173 and 174 can maintain its coupling with the rack even when passing over the interrupted section. The linked pinion provision can, e.g., be installed in a slide provision and its two pinions are not only linked to each other but also to gearwheel 177 which is positioned coaxial with the other secondary axis V. Said linkage between pinions and gearwheel 177 can be accomplished using auxiliary gearwheels 178 and 179 that each rotate as a single entity with its pinion and mutual axis 175 or 176. Gearwheel 177 provides the actual coupling between the rack and a cylinder means rotating around secondary axis V. Figure 17 shows rigidly connected gearwheels 178 and 173 (and 179 and 174) with different radii which provides an additional step to obtain high rpms for the generator. Such combination however can be replaced by a simpler single "idler" carrying a single ball bearing which allows to fix axis 175 (and 176) rigidly into a structure such as shown in figure 23.
Couplings and linear constrains don't have to be combined. This type of coupling can be used regardless the type of vane positioning means that is actually used. To illustrate this point, vane 34 in figure 3 could, in principle, be equipped with a sufficiently long rack that couples to a pinion placed around the appropriate secondary axis.
Advantages of this type of coupling can consist of the avoidance of high ratio gear boxes coupling a very slowly rotating vane to high rpm requiring electric generators, because coupling through a secondary axis can already provide high rpms when using low number of teeth pinions. Another advantage can be that it allows to restrict the number of potentially heavy structures that have to be held at fixed positions, as can be seen in the mentioned second preferred floating single vane embodiment.
A completely different way to coupling onto a linear motion is to use the linear motion to drive a piston to displace a hydraulic fluid or to pump water. The hydraulic fluid or pumped water can pass through a hollow version of a secondary axis in order to provide a practical point of use.
4.7.4.1 Linear gearbox Figure 38 discloses the concept of a linear gearbox according to the invention, specifically involving slow linear motion by providing an additional factor to increase the rotational speed of an electricity generating device. The shown cross-section in the figure intersects the center of a kinetic drag turbine and the leg, the first leg, that is perpendicular on the leg associated with the vane or blade, shown as 3814, being the second leg of the associated cross provision according to the invention. The center of a first sliding means 382 connect through pole 381 to a chain or cable 383 which is securing a fixed point in the length of the chain or cable so that it will follow the linear motion of the sliding means along the first leg. The chain or cable 383 is positioned below the point where it could block the motions of the second sliding means associated with the motion according to the invention. The satillate floating devices, or pontons, are situated at the ends of the first leg and each house an idler teethed wheel, or pulley, 385. These iddler teethed wheels or pulleys turn around the direction of the motion of chain or cable 383 which ends connect each to an end of idler carrier 389, causing the latter to describe a mirrored path of the point where pole 381 connects to chain or cable 383. A second chain or cable 387, whose ends are rigidly connected each at a point 386 on a satellite, wraps around two idler teethed wheels or pulleys such as 388 on idler carrier 389 and is guided through additional idlers such as 3810 and 3811 to drive a teethed wheel or pulley 3812 on each of the electricity generating means 3812 where after chain or cable 383 crosses to the other side. Multiples of such assemblies can be made where each provides a factor two increase of speed of the involved chain or cable. The water level in figure 38 is symbolically shown as line 3816 while also shown are enclosing bellows 384 enabling to make a water tight enclosure.
4.7.4.2 Uninterrupted rack and pinion provision Figure 39 shows a rack and pinion type of coupling enabling to transform a slow linear motion into a high speed rotational motion. The rack is part of a leg 391 of the associated cross shaped means carrying sliding means 393 while the pinion is mounted on the axis of generator or alternator means 392. More details are visible in separate enlarged detail pictures at the bottom of figure 39 showing the actual rack 395 mounted facing a flat surface barrier 394 across a midcenter plane through the length axis of the leg 391. Also shown in the picture are thrust bearing 397 and its associated support means 396. Figure 40 discloses the actual coupling between pinion 4010 and rack 408 while their proper distance is maintained by bearings 409 and 4012 in contact with flat surface barrier shown in picture 39 as 394, thus setting the maximum distance between the rack and the pinion. Pinion 4010, bearing 409 and bearing 4012 are all coaxially mounted on the axis 407 of the generator or alternator means 401. Optionally, not shown in figure 39 is the addition of a bearing on the axis 407 that contacts a flat surface barrier on the same side as the rack, thus setting the shortest distance between the rack and the pinion.
Figure 40 shows additionally bearing 404 enabling rotation of the generator or alternator means 392 related to sliding means 405, flat surface barrier 4011 and grooves 405 and 406 holding rolling means such as balls. Provisions to seal of the exposed rack provision in a waterproof way by bellows or even zipper kind of provisions to adapt to the motion of the corresponding slider are considered within the scope of the invention.
4.8 Power Electronics
As disclosed under "Coupling directly to provisions undergoing linear motion", it is possible to obtain a sine wave frequency modulated type of rotational motion around a secondary axis when coupling to mentioned linear motion. Although this does get a generator periodically running at high rpms without an expensive gearbox, the generated electrical output however is not constant. The invention provides means to transform this output into a stable voltage that can be supplied to a load, a battery or a large capacity that can serve as a buffer smoothing out fluctuations. The following describes the power electronics according to the invention that generates a stable voltage dealing with a generator output that results from a rack and pinion or equivalent scenario, such as based on chain, where the generator's rpm varies from zero to max and back to zero again.
The generator can be a DC generator where a provision switches the polarity when the generator's rotational direction changes thus providing a single polarity DC output with* varying voltage. The same can be accomplished with a AC generator using a rectifier provision transforming AC into DC. A multitude of electronic switches is used to interconnect a number of capacities in combinations of series and/or parallel arrangements. The electronic switches stack capacities in series to connect to above varying DC voltage in such number that each individual capacity will charge up to a predetermined low voltage. Once a capacity approaches said predetermined voltage, its associated electronic switches will connect it to discharge over a load in parallel with other capacities that are in a similar condition. After discharging to a lower voltage, the capacity will again become part of the stacked capacities connected to the varying DC voltage in order to be charged. Groups of capacities stacked in series can be arrange in parallel to handle larger currents when charging. Electricity can now be provided at a voltage around said predetermined low voltage value using such switch management circuit that constantly rearranges a multitude of capacitors between parallel for discharging and stacking them in series to match the currently generated voltage when charging. A similar electronics, working in reverse can be used to drive a motor at varying voltage powered from a stable voltage source thus enabling to couple the associated energy into provisions undergoing linear motion according to the invention.
Control electronics controlling the electric load on the electricity generating means enable to adapt the maximum forces exercised on the construction and to adapt to the capacity of the installed generator or alternator.
4.9 Yaw Provisions
Yaw provisions, for the purpose of the current invention, allow to adapt to or generate changes in the direction of the fluid stream, respectively extracting or adding energy from or to such stream. When applying vane positioning means such as those based on external spur gear, internal spur gear, gearbox and chain connection, a yaw provision can rotate the gear around the main axis or rotate the main mast itself. In the case of vane positioning means such as linear motions on the one hand, shown in figure 18, the angle of the vane in respect to the slot or a leg of the cross can be adapted for yaw purposes illustrated by the angle between lines 181 and 182. On the other hand, the angle with the stream ditection of a line between the two secondary axis can be modified by moving one or both of the positions of the secondary axis as shown in figure 19. Figure 19 shows a provision to vary said angle by rotating parallel beams 193 and 194 around axis 192. The rotational point of axis 192 is situated at a fixed position on beam 191 which corresponds, e.g., to 208 in the preferred embodiment of figure 20 where it constitutes a fixed horizontal beam connecting poles 2015 and 2016. Figure 19 shows the secondary axis 195 and 196, at the extremities of beams 193 and 194, as the associated cylinders which carry respectively slider provision sets 197 & 1910 and 198 & 1911 to support cross provisions such as 199. When vanes are vertically stacked, such as the embodiment shown in figure 20, each cylinder carries a slider on one end that is perpendicular to the one on the opposite end as priory presented, see figure 10. In case of only one vane, or in case the vane is the lowest one of a series of vertically stacked vanes, only the upper sliders are present. In that case, one or both of the lower cylinder ends can be replaced by a coupling/gear ratio provision connecting the cylinder's rotational motion to another rotational motion coaxial to axis 192 coupling latter rotation to that of a motor/generator provision. Note that rotation related to yaw rotation is, obviously, independent of the rotation related to said motor/generator provision where the latter's coupling takes place at a point below that of the yaw provision. In this setup, a single motor/generator provision can be solidly positioned at a secure and accessible ground level. The said coupling/gear ratio provision can consist of a series of spur gear sets supported and held in place by provisions on beam 193 that stepwise increase the rotational speed from the low rpms associated with rotation of the involved cross provisions to the required high rpms associated with the electric motor or generators. The provision on beam 193 could contain, e.g., vertically positioned needle bearing supporting axles carrying a spur gear with a large number of teeth on one end and a spur gear with a low number of teeth on the other end. Such gearing up of rotational motion would be unnecessary in case the involved energy is used for, e.g., low rpm water pumping applications.
As mentioned above, under Vane Positioning Means, Linear motions, a variation of providing vane positioning means by using constrains on linear motions consists of providing a means 65, figure 6, with an angle between the two legs different from 90 degrees. When this angle is made tunable, it provides a way to change the yaw. Varying said angle changes the circular path described by the center of the modified cross provision. Obviously, the positions of the auxiliary axis remains unchanged but the position of the associated main axis changes being the center of said circular path. The relation between the direction of the wind and said angle can be determined by drawing a plane through the auxiliary axis that constrains the leg carrying the vane and said main axis. The corresponding wind direction will now be perpendicular to this plane. Practical limits will be set by the length of the cross. A diamond shaped moveable mechanical assembly can be used to synchronized the change of said angle (like the mechanical device used to lift a car to change a flat tire, car jack). Yaw adjustments tend to be slow and can be done in small incremental steps, e.g., by block and deblocking associated displacement mechanism at appropriate times during the vane's cyclic motion so that the wind provides the force required to do associated work.
It turns out that a change of A degrees in the angle between the legs of the modifiable cross corresponds with a change in the angle for the yaw of 2A degrees. This combined with the ability to change the rotational direction makes that a full 360 degrees yaw ability can be obtained by changing the angle of a perpendicular setup by plus or minus 45 degrees.
A specific yaw provision according to the invention consist of grouping single vane or blade kinetic drag turbines such as disclosed in the second preferred embodiment into a pair or multiple pairs. A pair is created by alligning the associated support beams, see, e.g., 3108 in figure 31, so that they form one long beam. By controlling the load on the electricity generation, a control system can synchronize the motions of the individual turbines of a pair so that they mirror each other. In such arrangement forces in the direction of the support beam would cancel out if the assembly is fully aligned in the stream. If not fully aligned, a net force in the direction of the support beam will exist which will actually push the assembly into alignment. Making a T shaped provision where the support beams of a pair represent the horizontal top of the T while a third beam representing the vertical part of the T connected at it its end constitutes a setup with a single mooring point that will auto align in the stream direction. Hanging a second such pair connecting just mentioned mooring point to the point of interconnection of beams of the first pair, combined with operating the control so that the pairs rotate "out of phase" would have the additional advantage that while one pair's blades move against the flow, the other pair's blades would slow down the flow making the againt the stream passage easier.
4.10 Applications Overview
4.10.1 Introduction Given the above vane positioning mechanisms together with the means to fix the center of mass, to accommodate a number of blades, to assure continuous motion and to accommodate various forms of enclosing structures and ways to couple rotational devices to the vane positioning provisions, there are numerous ways to combine such means and optimize features for specific applications.
In the following, categories of some of the different applications are indicated.
4.10.2 Conversion of rotational mechanical energy from or into translational energy of a fluid in case the fluid is air: wind turbine, where the rotational energy generates electricity, pumps water etc. propulsion of air craft. generation of streams of air or gas such as fans, pumps, blowers and vacuum cleaners. spinning billboard, in case the fluid is water: kinetic drag turbine for currents and streams, wave energy and tidal energy. propulsion of water craft such as boat and submarines. generation of streaming water, pump.
4.10.3 Conversion of rotational mechanical energy from or into energy associated with a pressure or temperature difference in an open loop system in case the difference takes place in fluid that is in the gas phase: gas burning internal combustion engine, hot air engine pneumatic, air motor gas pump/compressor in case the difference takes place in fluid in the liquid phase: hydraulic motor liquid pump in case the difference takes place in a fluid that changes from liquid to gas phase: liquid fuel internal combustion engine external combustion steam engine
4.10.4 Conversion of rotational mechanical energy from or into energy associated with a temperature difference between mentioned wall heat sink areas in a closed loop system external combustion engine where the fluid in the closed loop undergoes a phase change, external combustion engine where the fluid in the closed loop is and remains in the gas phase
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OPTEC geothermal heat pump, refrigeration, air conditioning. systems where the temperature of a heat sink is associated with an air or water stream. active heat sink, using recovered energy from the temperature difference to provide more heat transport.
4.11 Appendices 4.1 1.1 Appendix A
Estimation of the power generated by the wind/water motor
Figure 2 shows vectors representing the wind W1 the position of a satellite axis R , the speed of the satellite S, and the position of the blade B. The rotational speed is ω and φ = ωt . For an observer at R the apparent wind V is equal to W-S. The direction of the blade is b .
Definitions :
R = {R. cosφ, R. sinφ} ,
S = G)R. {-sinφ, cosφ} ,
W = {0,W},
V = W-S = (G)R. sinφ, W-ωR. cosφ} ,
S = {cos(φ/2), sin(φ/2)},
X = Rω/W, where X is the tip speed ratio.
Also: h is the height of a rotor blade,
R is the distance from the main axis to a satellite axis, r is the distance from the satellite axis to the edge of the rotor blade (blade is 2r wide) .
Furthermore, N is the direction normal to the blade pointing away from the source of the wind, so:
N = {-sin(φ/2), cos(φ/2)} when 0 < φ < π and (Al)
N = {sin(φ/2), -cos(φ/2)} when π < φ < 2π. (A2)
Consider a stream with speed W [m/sec], density p [kg/irP] and cross section A [m^] perpendicular to the flow direction. The volume passing per second is equal to A. W [m-Vsec.]. The mass passing per second is equal to A.W.p [kg/sec.]. The (kinetic) energy per second is equal to ( 1/2) A. W. p. W^ or, the wind power passing through area A is (l/2)Apw3. The relationship that power (energy/sec.) equals force times speed can be used to derive the following drag force formula. The drag on a blade with cross section A perpendicular to a stream with speed W and density p is equal to (l/2)CpA.w2, where C is a form factor related to the geometry of the blade.
The force F on a blade will be in the direction of the normal on the blade and the size will be proportional to cos^θ. The angle θ is between the direction N normal to the blade and that of the apparent wind V . The factor cos^θ is due to the reduced exposed area. In vector notation:
F = (l/2)CpA. {V . N)2. N1 where A is the blade area. (A3) The product of F times the satellite speed S gives the instantaneous work performed by the motor.
For 0 < φ < π:
Instantaneous power is: F . S = ( 1/2) CpA. {V . N ) 2. N . S =
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2.cos3(φ/2) (A4)
The average instantaneous power is: π
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2.(l/π)j cos3(φ/2)dφ = o
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2. 4/(3π) (A5)
Similarly for π < φ < 2π:
Instantaneous power is:
F. S= -(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2.cos3(φ/2) and the average instantaneous power is: -(l/2)CpA.X. (1 - X)2.(l/π)I cos3(φ/2)dφ = π
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2. 4/(3π) (A6)
So, the average generated power is: { 2/ (3π) } . CpA. W3.X. ( 1 - X)2.
The optimal value Xoptimai f°r X is found as follows: X. (1 - X)2 = 0 gives (1 - X)2 - 2X.(1 - X) = (1 - X). (1 - 3X) = δX o.
So, Xoptimal = 1 /3 (A7 )
Define the average power coefficient as the average power generated by one blade of the wind motor divided by the wind power passing through a cross section of the wind stream with the same area as the blade.
So, the average power coefficient is:
(2/(3π) } .C. p. A. W3. X. (1 - X)2 / {0.5ApW3} = { 4/ (3π) } . CX. ( 1 - X)2 (A8)
Substituting the value of XOpt.mai in the above expression gives the optimal average power coefficient Cop:
COp = {4/(3π) }.C. (4/27) = 16.C/(81.π) (A9) The drag coefficient C will approach 1.98 for a long thin rectangular blade with h » r, p 399 7.10 Drag, Fluid Mechanics, Robert A. Granger.
This gives Cop = 12.45 percent (AlO)
Conclusion: the proposed wind/water motor rotating at a uniform speed can transform kinetic energy into rotational energy with a, windspeed independent, 12.45 percent efficiency.
4.11.2 Appendix B
Estimation of the power increase operating at non-uniform rotational speed.
See appendix A for the definitions and notations used in this appendix.
Specifically looked into will be the trajectory with 0 < φ < π, where the same results can be obtained for the trajectory π < φ < 2π.
The instantaneous power on the 0 ≤ φ < π trajectory was derived in appendix A as formula (A4) :
F. S = (l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2. cos3 (φ/2) (Bl)
The average instantaneous power over a section from 0 to a, where 0 < a < π is : a
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2.(l/a)j cos3(φ/2)dφ = o a
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2. (I/a) . [2. sin (φ/2 ) - (2/3 ) .sin3(φ/2) ] o
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2. (I/a) . (2. sin (a/2 ) - (2/3 ) .sin3(a/2)) (B2)
Which becomes for a = π/2: nil
(l/2)CpA.W3.X(l - X)2. (2/π) . [2. sin (φ/2 )- (2/3) .sin3(φ/2) ] o
(l/2)CpA.W3.X. (1 - X)2. (10/(3πV2 ) (B3)
This result can be compared to (1/2) CpA. W3. X. (1 - X)2.4/(3π) priorly obtained integrating from 0 to π, see (A5) appendix A.
More power can be generated by moving with a low rotational speed of ω = W/ (3R) through such section while speeding with ω = W/R through the remainder. As priorly shown in appendix A, ω = W/ (3R) corresponds to the optimal value X = 1/3 when most power is extracted while ω = W/R corresponds to X = 1 when no power is extracted. It should be noted that even lower rotational speeds through this section could be beneficial, e.g., when the generated power would otherwise exceed the capacity of the generator. This way a larger fraction of the cycle would be spend generating electricity at maximum capacity. Compared to the complete 0 to π trajectory, a factor 5/(2V2 )more power can be extracted going through the mentioned segment which represent half of the trajectory. However, no power is extracted going through the remaining half. Given the factor three higher speed through the latter, 75% of the time, instead of one half, is now spend extracting energy.
The overall result is a factor 15/(8v2) which corresponds to a 32.6 percent increase, which is about the maximum increase that can be obtained varying the value of a.
As shown before, the proposed wind/water motor rotating at a uniform speed can transform kinetic energy into rotational energy with a, windspeed independent, 12.45 percent efficiency.
Conclusion: the proposed wind/water motor rotating at a non- uniform speed can transform kinetic energy into rotational energy with a, windspeed independent, 16.51 percent efficiency.
4.11.3 Appendix C
Effects related to the distance of a position on the blade to the blade' s axis
See appendix A for the definitions and notations used in this appendix.
Specifically looked into will be the trajectory with 0 < φ < π, where the same results can be obtained for the trajectory π < φ < 2π.
The calculations of appendix A approximate the speed at any position on the blade to be equal to the speed of the blade's axis. This appendix takes speed differences into account across the blade's area. General formulas are given to take this effect into account, while numeric results are given for the largest impact in case of the widest possible blade.
For a given angle φ, a position on the blade can be described as by a segment of a line passing through point {R. cos (φ) , R. sin (φ) } pointing in the direction {cos(φ/2), sin(φ/2)}.
Define a parameter f with -1 < f < 1 so that: x(f,φ) = R.cos(φ)+ f.r.cos(φ/2) and y(f,φ) = R.sin(φ)+ f.r.sin(φ/2)
The speed of the position f on the blade is: G (f,φ) = ω{ (R. cos (φ) + f . r .cos (φ/2) ) 2+ (R. sin (φ) + f . r.sin (φ/2) ) 2}0-5. {-sinφ, cosφ}
For an observer at a position f on the blade, H(f,ψ)is the apparent wind which is equal to W-G (f,φ) where:
H (f,φ)= {ω{ (R.cos(φ)+f .r.cos (φ/2) )2 + (R. sin (φ) +f. r.sin (φ/2) ) 2J0-5. sin
W - ω{(R.cos(φ)+ f .r.cos (φ/2) ) 2+ (R. sin (φ) + f . r. sin (φ/2) ) 2} °-5. cosφ}
Furthermore, N is the direction normal to the blade pointing away from the source of the wind, so: N = {-sin(φ/2), cos(φ/2)} for 0 < φ < π
The force P (f,φ) on position f on a blade will be in the direction of the normal on the blade and the size will be proportional to cos^θ . The angle θ is between the direction N normal to the blade and that of the apparent wind H(f,φ). The factor cos^θ is due to the reduced exposed area. In vector notation:
P(f,φ) = (l/2)Cp.2r.δf .h. (H (f,φ) .N)2. N where 2r.δf.h is an infinitesimal area at the position f.
The product of P (f,φ) times the speed G (f,φ) gives the instantaneous work performed by the motor on area 2r.δf.h.
For 0 < φ < π:
Instantaneous power on position f is: P (f,φ).G (f,φ) = (l/2)Cp.2r.δf .h. (H (f,φ) .N)2. N . G (f,φ)
The instantaneous power on the entire blade is: (l/2)Cp.h.2r. | ( H (f, φ) . N )2. N . G (f,φ)df
The average instantaneous power is:
(l/2)Cp.h.2r. (1/π) . r J ( H (f,φ) • N) 2. N . G (f, φ) df.dφ
Up to this point general formulas are given for arbritary values of R and r. Ηereunder, the case of the widest blade where r = 2R is further discussed as its shows the largest impact of above discussed approximation .
So, for the largest blade:
The speed of the position f on the blade is: G (f,φ) = ω.R{ (cos (φ)+ 2f .cos (φ/2) )2 +(sin(φ)+ 2f . sin(φ/2) )2}0-5. {-sinφ,cosφ} This expression can be further simplified using:
{(cos(φ)+ 2f .cos (φ/2) )2 +(sin(φ)+ 2f . sin (φ/2) ) 2} = {1 +4f2 +4f.cos(φ /2) }
Resulting in:
G (f,φ) = ω.R{l + 4f2 + 4f . cos (φ/2) }0-5. {-sinφ, cosφ} The apparent wind is:
H(f,φ)= {ω.R{l + 4f2 + 4f. cos (φ/2) }0'5. sinφ, W - ω.R{l + 4f2 + 4f .cos(φ/2) }°'5.cosφ}
The force P (f,φ) on position f on the blade is: P (f,φ) = (l/2)Cp.2R.δf .h. (H (f,φ) . N)2. N
Further:
H (f,φ) .N = [W - ω.R{l + 4f2 + 4f .cos(φ/2) }0-5] .cos(φ/2)
Instantaneous power on position f is:
P (f,φ) . G (f,φ) = (l/2)Cp.2R.δf .h. (H (f,φ) .N)2. N. G (f,φ)
Using:
N. G (f,φ) = ω.R{l + 4f2 + 4f .cos(φ/2) }0'5 .cos(φ/2) .
Which makes P (f,φ) . G (f,φ) =
(l/2)Cp.2R.δf .h.W3.cos3(φ/2) .X[I - X{1 + 4 f2 + 4f . cos (φ/2 ) } °'5] 2. { 1 + 4f2 + 4f .cos(φ/2) }0-5.
The instantaneous power P(φ) on the entire blade is: f P (f,φ) . G (f,φ)df = (l/2)Cp.h.W3.2R.cos3(φ/2) .X. f [1 - X{1 + 4f
+ 4f .cos(φ/2) }0-5]2. {1 + 4f2 + 4f . cos (φ/2 ) }0-5. df
The average instantaneous power is: π π j
(l/π)| P(φ)dφ = (1/2) Cp. h. W3.2R.X. (1/π)! cos3(φ/2). [1 - X{1 + 4f2 +
0 0 J-I
4f .cos (φ/2) }0-5]2. {1 + 4fz + 4f . cos (φ/2 ) }0-5. df .dφ
Hereinafter X is taken equal to 1/3 which is the optimal value for the approximated case in appendix A.
Numerical integration (e.g. using Mathcad) gives:
J cos3(φ/2). [1 - (1/3){1 + 4f2 + 4f . cos (φ/2 ) }0-5] 2. { 1 + 4f2 +
0 J-I
4f .cos(φ/2) }°-5.df . dφ = 2.829
Resulting in an average instantaneous power of:
2.829(l/2)Cp.h.W3.2R. (1/3) . (1/π)
This is compared to the approximated case of appendix A for A = 4R.h:
(l/2)Cp.4R.h.W3. (1/3) . (1 - (1/3))2. 4/(3π)
This comparison results in a factor 0.796 less power for the current case .
Conclusion: the proposed wind/water motor rotating at a uniform speed can transform kinetic energy into rotational energy with a, windspeed independent, 9.91 percent efficiency, for the widest blade version taking speed variations over the width of the blade into account (was 12.45 %, see appendix A) .
When operating at a non-uniform speed described in appendix B the calculated 16.51 % efficiency will be reduced to 13.14 percent efficiency taking speed variations over the width of the blade into account . 4.11.4 Appendix D Capacity Factor
Definitions : Symbol Units Description
RC = E*(l/2)CpA.Wrated 3 watts rated capacity, power produced at Wrated.
Wrated m/sec windspeed used for rating (typically 10 m/sec in US) .
W m/sec wind speed.
A m area of the turbine blade (S) .
P kg/m3 density of the air (or water) . C unity form factor related to the geometry of the blade (s) .
Pmax = E*(l/2)CpA.Wmax 3 watts generator capacity, produced at wind speed >Wmax.
Wm m/sec windspeed above which the produced power is set by the generator capacity.
P(W,Wavg) = (π.W/2)* unity Height independent Raleigh (Wavg)"2.exp(-0.25π(W/Wa, probability distribution characterized by Wavg.
W(h2) = W(Ii1) . {h2/h!)1/7 m/sec 1/7 power law based windspeed projection at height h2 given the windspeed at reference height hi, typically 10 m. unity efficiency factor: produced energy divided by the energy associated with a blade area size cross section of the windstream. E is W independent for the current design and equals 0.1245 or 0.0991 as calculated in appendix A &
C.
CF = unity Capacity Factor, ratio of produced and rated power. f! P(w,wavg) .w3dw +
I P(w, wavg) .wmax 3dv}/v
The impact of the blade (s) height on the capacity factor can be taken into account by introducing a height dependend Raleigh distribution. The introduced distribution is based on a given Raleigh distribution, characterized by Wavg, at the reference height of 10 meter: P(h,W,Wavq) = (π.W/2) . (Wavg. (h/10) (1/") .exp(-0.25π(W/(Wavg. (h/10) <1/7>)')
The corresponding height corrected capacity factor CCF is:
CCF = ( l /vrated 3 ) . ( 1 / H ) I 1 P ( v, vav9 . ( h/ 10 ) ( 3/7) ) . v3 . dv . dh + o o
H ∞ d /vrated 3 ) • ( 1 /H ) J I P ( v, vavg . ( h/ 10 ) ( 3/7 > ) . Vmax 3 . dv . dh
Some result from numerical integration (by, e.g., Mathcad) Corrected Capacity Factor [%] for 50 m blade height
Figure imgf000025_0001
Corrected Capacity Factor [%] for 100 m blade height
Figure imgf000025_0002
Where the average windspeed Vavg for class 2, 3 and 4 are taken as respectively 4.75, 5.35 and 5.8 m/sec.
The capacity factor includes proporties of the wind turbine as well as proporties of the site where it is installed. The capacity factor definition is often expanded to the average energy produced over, e.g., a year or seasonal period divided by the rated capacity. Such definition would include maintenance periods and also, hereunder further discussed, wake effects caused by neighbouring windmills in a windfarm setup.
Windfarms, turbine arrays
Typically, a distance of five rotor diameters, R, is maintained between neighbouring state of the art HAWT turbines to create an acceptable decrease of the capacity factor due to wake effects. The associated turbine density is 1/ (25*R2) turbine/m2.
The same rule will be used hereunder filling an array with the new turbines featuring an equivalent blade area and a height/width ratio of 16. The resulting density is 64/πor about 20 times higher.
Additionally, the new turbine extract energy with a about 10% efficiency, which is roughly a factor 3 lower than typical state of the art turbines. Based on the drag forces, the new turbines will also leave a less turbulent wake. These features might lead to even higher turbine densities that place the device structures close enough together to enabling shared poles and support cables.
Apart from better land use, other benefits of such close packing of windmills would be the sharing of the infrastructure such as foundations, cabling but also the connection to the grid and possibly mechanically linking more than one windmill to a single generator etc.
Provision to synchonize neighbouring windmills rotations to arrange a
90 degrees out of phase situation to reduce overall wake effects are considered within the scope of the invention. 4.1 1.5 Appendix E
Single wide blade enclosure mathematical path description
See appendix A for the definitions and notations used in this appendix.
Specifically looked into will be the trajectory with 0 < φ < 2π.
Similar mirrored results can be obtained for the trajectory 2π < φ <
4π which completes the enclosure path description.
Figure 2 shows vectors representing the position of the satellite axis R , the position of the blade B and the direction of the blade is b .
Definitions :
R = {R. cosφ, R. sinφ} ,
S = (cos(φ/2), sin(φ/2)},
R is the distance from the main axis to a satellite axis, 2R is the distance from the satellite axis to the edge of the rotor blade. The enclosure is used in combination with a single wide blade, where the widt, edge to edge is 4R.
For a given angle φ, a position on the blade can be described as by a segment of a line passing through point {R. cos (φ) , R. sin (φ) } pointing in the direction {cos(φ/2), sin(φ/2)}.
Define a parameter f with -1 < f < 1 so that: X(f,φ) = R.cos(φ)+ 2. f .R. cos (φ/2) and Y(f,φ) = R.sin(φ)+ 2. f .R. sin (φ/2)
Where the above (x,y) coordinates describe the position f along the width of the blade with the blade orientation set by angle φ. The description of the tip, or edge, of the blade will either deal with f = 1 or f = -1.
Taking R = I:
Figure 11, for 0 < φ < 2π and f = +1, shows the enclosure's upper half as described by:
{cos(φ)+ 2. cos (φ/2) , sin (φ) + 2sin(φ/2)} which is the upper half of wide blade edge enclosure for circular motion around (0,0) with radius 1.
4.12 Preferred Embodiments
4.12.1 First preferred group of embodiments, windmill Figure 20 shows a stacked blade, 204 &
2010, vertical axis wind mill with four cross provisions, 203, 205, 209 & 2011 and secondary axis driven generator(s), 201 & 202. The application deals with converting wind energy into rotational mechanical energy. The basic motion and vane positioning is done by linear constrained slide devices on a cross shaped provision, such as illustrated in figure 6. The counter balance mechanism is shown in figure 10 where the cross provision 205 and 209 (fig. 20) are linked to each other in the same manner as described for the crosses 103 and 107 in figure 10. Besides serving as each other's counterweight, crosses 205 and 209 both carry a vane, positioned perpendicular to each other forming basically a twin structure to assure continuous motion and fix the overall center of mass of the moving assembly. The means to connect to the vane rotation/positioning provisions is provided by coupling directly to provisions rotating around one or both secondary axis. The cylinders supporting cross 203 are provided by the axis of the generator means 201 and 202.
The horizontal beams 208 and 2014 secure the outside ring of bearings that hold cylinders, two for each beam, at points 206, 207, 2012 and 2013. Figure 24 shows how the vertical beams 2015 and 2016 (fig. 20) secure the endpoints of mentioned horizontal beams supported by a network of cables with connections to mooring points secured in the ground. Similarly, a vane with its cross provisions on both extremeties can be made into a rigid entity that can handle a large amount of torque with a minimum of deformation by adding a pole between the centers of the crosses and between each cross end point and the corresponding end point of the cross at the opposite side of the vane. Cables, or equivalent rigid tubular provisions, can then be installed making diagonal connections such as between pole endpoints. The cable network can be setup so that forces on beams and poles are directed only along their length axis leading to contraction or elongation along the length of these devices. Figure 24 also shows part of the cables associated with the left hand pole supporting points 2013, and 207 (fig. 20) preventing the associated beams from bending. Cable attachments 241 and 241 on the ground level and top point 243 secure the structure for the left pole while a not shown similar symmetric cable network supports the right hand pole.
Figure 21 shows a simple configuration of a cross provision consisting of a cross made from thin walled square extrusion provided with a slot on of its sides. Figure 22 shows how a simple slide provision is linearly constrained within such extrusion 221. Figure 22 shows the slide provision's three sets of 4 wheels enabling the slide to maintain alignment within its leg when passing through the center of the cross provision traversing the other leg. The distance between the three sets is chosen such that during such center crossing always at least two out of the three are constrained by wall contact. Figure 22 shows the wheels, such as 222, that in an economical version can consist of a ball bearing where the outside ring of the bearing contacts the wall. The body of the slide provision consist of four L profiled pieces, such as 223, held in place by twelve cylinder shaped connecting cylinders, such as 224. These cylinders hold also the wheels or bearings that have, e.g., an extended inner race allowing their rotation unhindered by the presence of the L profiled pieces. Figure 23 gives an exploded view of a slide provision showing L profile 231, wheel, or ball bearing, 232, and cylinder 233 secured in the holes 234 and 235. The middle of the slide is attached to a discussed cylinder around a secondary axis by bolts, such as 236 that pass through holes, such as 239 through two out of the four L profiled pieces assisted by wedge shaped provisions 237 and 238. Obvious provisions such as placing brushes on the slide to clean dust etc. out of the inside of the legs of the cross or providing some degree of flexibility to the connections to accommodate deformation under load are considered within the scope of the invention, as well as adapting stacked blades, such as shown in figure 20, to the effects of higher wind speeds at greater heights, e.g., by adapting/varying the blade areas. Other improvements would be to provide the vanes with gravity or spring controlled flap type of provisions that open part of the vane's surface area at high wind speeds thus reducing the active area and the risk to damage the installation. The invention enables to economically extract energy from wind resources and variations of this preferred embodiment can use rack and pinion provisions connecting to generators resting on the ground positioned at the auxiliary axis positions with sliders capable of passing thought the center of the cross while maintaining pinions synchronized to the rack, see figure 17. Where the main cost of state of the art windmill is typically associated with the turbine blades and the transmission, such versions of the current invention would make the generator become one of the most expensive parts. Given such scenario, it would become desirable to run the windmill most of the time at the maximum capacity of the generator for a range of varying wind speeds, resulting in a high capacity factor. Under these circumstances provisions to adapt the available vane area to a given wind speed can be used consisting of rolling up parts of sail kind of vanes, e.g., around a central pole or poles at the sides, or other sliding or folding mechanisms. Also considered part of the invention are provision to adapt construction, materials and dimension of stacked vanes to their position in the stack, such as the higher wind speeds occurring at higher altitudes or the requirement to pass on accumulating forces to lower positioned vanes.
4.12.2 Second preferred group of embodiments, kinetic drag turbine for water applications
This embodiment is a floating single vane turbine with cross provision and linear motion drives. Optionally, the vane could be configured hollow to enable floating and to save cost of material, which can consist for example of waterproof concrete. Figure 25 shows a single blade floating vane 252 with two satellite floating devices 2510 & 2511 keeping the vane erect, much like a three hull trimaran sailboat. This embodiment serves as a drag turbine extracting energy from water streams like rivers, ocean currents, tidal currents and waves. The direction of the stream or of traveling waves is indicated by arrow 251. The basic motion and vane positioning is done by linear constrained slide devices 258 & 259 on a cross provision with the two legs 253 & 254 perpendicular to each other but not in the same plane. Beam 255 is anchored by cables connected to its extremities thus fixing the positions of the two secondary axis 256 & 257. The beam connects at these axis to the two sliding provisions 258 and 259 that make linear motions respectively in leg 254 and 253. Floating devices 2510 and 2511 are mounted at the extremities of leg 254 and house each an electricity generator while readily available flowing water optionally makes it easy to cool such generator and avoid demagnetization. The axis 2512 of the generator positioned in floating device 2511 is positioned vertically and equipped with a, not shown, teethed wheel that carries a chain similarly connected to the other generator in floating device 2510. The chain resides within leg 254, connects rigidly to one end of slide 258, loops around the teethed wheel at the generator situated at the same side as the mentioned end of slide 258, and runs toward and around the teethed wheel at the other generator to end up connecting rigidly to the other end of slide 258. Figure 26 shows the just mentioned leg 254 of figure 25 as leg 263 that connects the generators and carries the discussed chain, whill illustrating how that leg is positioned under the other leg 262 of the cross. Leg 262 is mounted on top of the vane show as 252 in figure 25 and is interrupted by a gap in the middle thus allowing passage for the cylinder 256 , figure 25, connecting to slide 258, figure 25. Figure 27 shows details of slide 271, which is slide 259 in figure 25, that is equipped with six combined bearings enabling to smoothly cross the mentioned gap in leg 262 where the gap is smaller than half the length of slide 259. Figure 27 shows a combined bearing consisting of a bearing 275 constraining the slide within the horizontal plane containing the leg 262 while the roller bearing 276 restricts the motion within said plane to the leg itself. Figure 27 also shows circular cutout 272 enabling to connect to cylinder 261 through a not shown ball bearing provision allowing the cylinder to rotate. Cylinder 261 is rigidly connected to beam 255 while a similar setup is made for cylinder 256 connecting to slide 258. Figure 27 shows holes 274 and 275 housing the axis 175 and 176 of the provision shown in figure 17 enabling the synchronized rack and pinion connection with rack 264 which is also interrupted by the mentioned gap. To address the need to continue the motion when the vane moves against the direction of the fluid stream positioned for minimal drag resistance, see, e.g., figure 1 for φ is 180 degrees, the rack and pinion coupling is driven by a motor not shown in any of the figures that is mounted on area 265 while its axis passes through cylinder 261 to connect to gearwheel 177. Cylinder 261 hereto is made hollow allowing unhindered rotation of said motor axis within the cylinder. Above use of the motor, to push during a short fraction of the cycle, requires the rack to be sufficiently strong over a fraction of its total length enabling to use a weaker version of the rack elsewhere where it only has to guide the pinion. Note that latter guidance of the motor mounted pinion could also be accomplished using an encoder based electronic feedback on the motor control. This embodiment will still undergo changes in weight distribution from the weight of the motor attached to area 265 that rests in fact on the moving slide 259 propagating over the length of leg 253. This effect will be relatively small as the motor can be light in comparison to the weight of the generators and the weight of the displaced water volume by the vane provision, optionally water could be actively pumped around to balance the weight.
A variation of this embodiment that maintains a fully symmetric weight distribution does not use the motor mounted on area 265 and has no rack and pinion provision. Instead this variation uses propellers or equivalent propulsion devices to propel the vane when moving against the stream. Such propulsion means can be symmetrically distributed or weight balanced. Another variation replaces the chain by a cord or string driving corresponding wheels on the two generator axis.
An even simpler preferred variation relies on the inertia of the angular momentum associated with the "rotational mass" to push the device through the point where the vane moves against the direction of the fluid stream. This version would make said motor and the rack and pinion provision driven by the motor unnecessary. In absence of having to pass rotational motion, this variation of the invention enables the mentioned gap in leg 262 to allow passage for the cylinder 256 connecting to slide 258 to be kept minimal by replacing the cylindrical shape 256 by an oval or rectangular shape sliding through the gap with its narrower side.
Provisions such as placing brushes on the slides to clean out dust, sweep out water etc. from the inside of the legs of the cross are considered well within the scope of the invention as well as using a foldable or reliable electrical cable to transport the electricity from the generator to the moving slider(s) and using pulleys on the chain to get a multiple higher rpms from the generators. Additionally, provisions to have the chain moving in a vertical plane which makes easier to guide under the impact of gravity, putting the chain under tension connecting it to the associated slide provision using springs and using chain guides is considered part of the invention.
Further versions of this preferred embodiment consist of schemes to support vane and legs of the cross provision by cables, e.g., connecting neighboring ends of the different legs and connecting ends of the leg perpendicular to the vane to the vane edges and rim. Other versions deal with variation in the shape of the vane such as a triangular shape pointing down along the vane's axis. This provides a gradual reduction in the forces on the vane's parts that are deeper in the water where support of cables connecting to the ends of the leg perpendicular on the vane is less effective.
As far as wave energy extraction, above floating device equipped with a wide thin horizontal blade can be used. By controlling the load and eventually the motor drive, a synchronized rotation with the existing wave pattern can be accomplished. Such synchronization could also make the passage of the blade directed in the same direction of the wave propagation coincide with the return motion of the wave.
An automatic yaw provision could made by using two above described devices and connect both device's beams 255 to form a long single beam. Two equally long cables connect from this long single beam extremities to a single moor point. Electronic control of the loads can synchronize the blades rotation so that forces on the devices parallel with said long beam will cancel out. The thus coupled two devices will direct automatically in the direction of the flow. Further support of the long beam can be provided by additional cabling such as by connecting the moor point also to the middle of the beam as well as adding a cable supported beam provision perpendicular to the said long beam constituting a cross.
The transport of the generated electricity from the moving parts of the device to the stable part such as beam 255 can take place through the secondary axis cylinders such as 256 and 257, e.g., for alternating current by placing circular transformer coils, one rotating and one fixed, around a cylinder shaped transformer core coaxial with a secondary axis.
There are a number of alternative ways to assure motion of the vane through the point where it moves against the direction of the flow: asymmetric wedges at the vertical blade edges or provisions on the generator enclosures with shapes constituting a Savonius type of drive. E.g., Savonius half circular cross section for the two enclosure housings possibly combined with extending the generator supporting leg of the cross. propellers at generator housings (directed perpendicular on the generator supporting leg of the cross), or at the blade edges (directed perpendicular to blade). rudder means on the blade edge, optionally positions at a point during the rotation when there are minimal forces required to position the rudder. supporting mentioned inertia from angular momentum driven motion by reversing the generator making it a motor to gain some more speed prior to passing the blade's point against the direction of the flow.
Provision that temporally fills the gap in the interrupted leg of the cross, providing continuation of guidance and traction for the slider provision in that leg while, e.g., being pushed away during passage of the other slider provision and flipping back again.
Provision that temporally fills the gap in the interrupted leg of the cross, providing continuation of guidance and traction for the slider provision in that leg while such provision is carried by that slider provision put in place prior to passing then taken with slider provision after passing.
4.12.3 Third preferred group of embodiments, blower, vacuum pump, vacuum cleaner The setup shown in figure 13 allows a single blade partially enclosed blower to efficiently create a stream of air through a duct. A relatively large volume of air can be displaced at a relatively low number of revolution per minute of the vane provision. This compares favorably with lift or centrifugal force based state of the art devices where the drag force component is lost as friction basically converting part of the energy into turbulences and heat. This heating up of air constitutes additional losses for applications such as air conditioning that have to use energy to cool the stream down. The inlet stream of this preferred embodiment blower can also serve, e.g., as a vacuum cleaner acting as a pump. Figure 15 shows a gear wheel based vane rotation means used for this preferred embodiment that is simple and compact but leaves opportunity for air flow leaking through space around the gear wheels. The provision shown in figure 14 would avoid such leakage while the principles of its implementation is shown in figure 28 that is further discussed in the fourth preferred embodiment.
Note that the device can work without lubricants as the vane does not have to scrape the enclosure wall when provisions are made with tight enough tolerances. The absence of lubricants is important for oil free pumps used in, e.g., the semiconductor manufacturing industry and blowers used in fuel cell related applications.
Where a thin vane enables a good leak tightness its capability to handle stress from mechanical forces is limited. Where this would make it desirable to drive the vane of a blower from both the two opposite sides of the vane this requires a synchronization of the associated rotations. Such synchronization can be achieved mechanically by providing means to couple the involved rotations. An alternative would be to use two separate motors one for each side and use electronic feedback, e.g., by using encoders to synchronize their rotations.
Such driving of enclosed vanes from their two opposite sides is not restricted to open loop systems both can equally be applied to close loop or unenclosed systems using motors but also synchronized loads represented by generators when generating energy.
4.12.4 Fourth preferred group of embodiments, heat pump Fig. 28 shows a single vane fully enclosed heat pump. Vane 281 makes the basic motion according to the invention within fully closed enclosure 282. The vane positioning means consist of slot 284 and bearing 285 provision shown in figure 7 and figure 14 while the center of mass is fixed using counterweight means such as shown in figure 9. A high degree of leak tightness is provided by the two plates connected to the end of the vane such as plate 287 which stay in close proximity of flat plates that make up the housing such as plate 286. Coupling to the slot and bearing vane positioning means is provided by coupling directly to one or both of the secondary axis represented in figure 28 by cylinder 283. The actual coupling takes place through rotating a not shown slide provision in slot 284 that is attached to cylinder 283 in analogy to the configuration such as shown in figure 6 as slide 63 and cylinder 61. Figure 14 shows how two slots can be positioned perpendicular to each other while coupling can be provided simultaneously at both secondary axis by two motors one coupling as discussed at cylinder 283 and the other one at a similar fixture connecting the other secondary axis at the other slot. The rotation of the two motors should be synchronized to prevent torque on the vane while such synchronization can take place electronically using encoder feedback at the two motors. Alternately, the rotation can be synchronized by externally connecting the two couplings through gears in which case one motor can be used. The heat sink areas correspond with the priory indicated sections SA and SB on the enclosure pattern discussed with figure 11.
Where above description deals with motors to convert energy into the creation of a temperature difference, presented embodiment is also applicable for the extraction of energy from a temperature difference. Hereto, a phase changing fluid can be used in the closed loop while tuning its pressure allows to adapt to the available temperature difference and can be accomplished by adding or removing quantities of fluid from the enclosed volume. Above presented use of two synchronized motors can be applied to generators adapting electronically the associated loads thus synchronizing the rotation. The heat sinks associated with the temperature difference can be obtained, e.g., by on the one hand pumping deep cold ocean water and on the other hand pumping warm surface water to the appropriated areas of the enclosure wall. Similarly, differences in masses of air or combination air and water can be used. Additionally, the generated rotational motion can be used to drive open loop partially enclosed versions of the invention for the required pumping associated with the involved air or water streams. Provisons such as extending enclosure 282 in figure 28 at the rim to create a lip parallel to plate 287 thus extending the width of the seal in the outward direction are considered being within the scope of the invention.
4.12.5 Fifth preferred group of embodiments, propulsion through air
Aircraft devices should be light while no mass can be wasted for use as counterweight. Vane positioning provisions should also remain small allowing more aerodynamically beneficially shapes. The twin set of gearbox based vane positioning means shown in figure 8 provides both these features. Three of such sets can be arranged in a triangle with each set's main axis 81 constituting one of the triangle's sides. Said main axis can be rigidly fixed constituting the main frame of the craft fixing the yaw such that force is directed perpendicular to the plane of the triangle. Three individually controlled motors situated at the points of the triangle can provide direct coupling onto to housing of the nearest gearbox on the main axis. This would allow to vertically lift a triangular device positioned in a horizontal plane. Tilting the triangle's plane by temporarily exerting unequal forces between the three sets of propulsion devices can provide a force component pushing the device in a desired horizontal direction. The complex power control of the three motors can be done in concert with feedback from a global positioning system, GPS, and gyroscopic sensors. Fins can be installed perpendicular on the triangle providing friction to prevent spinning around the triangle's centre.
4.12.6 Sixth preferred group of embodiments, partially enclosed water propulsion Partially open enclosures in configurations such as described in the third embodiment for air flows are used in the sixth preferred embodiment for watercraft propulsion. Seen the large forces, vane positioning means such as shown in figure 7 are most appropriate combined with counterweight provisions shown in figure 9. The partially enclosed device can be incorporated in the ship providing a high efficiency coupling of rotational motion with the water flow that enters near the bow and leaves at the back side of the craft. Two such propulsion units that rotate independently can be used to provide a steering means by varying the ratio of generated thrust between the units mounted parallel in a horizontal plane.
4.12.7 Seventh preferred group of embodiments, unenclosed water propulsion
Propulsion of watercraft can achieved with a twin set of unenclosed inundated vanes moving around a vertical main axis. Steering the craft without a rudder type of provision can be achieved by rotating the main axis that is in contact with the vane positioning means to achieve yaw kind of action.
4.12.8 Eighth preferred group of embodiments, internal combustion engine
Fuel can be burned inside an isolate enclosed volume constituted by the vane and the enclosing wall, thus creating an internal combustion engine. Wall area SA has a small opening or openings near the tip 111, see figure 11, enabling the entry of fuel and air while area SB is partially open to rapidly exhaust combusted gas. Sparkplug or diesel engine kind of auto ignition could be achieved on the hot air, vaporized fuel mixture. A high compression ratio allows in principle to achieve high efficiencies for the Carnot cycle. Operating at high rpms allows the engine to achieve work without involving large forces. Lacking scraping parts allows very fast rotation without wear. Coupling the device with above discussed "Heat exchange with internal use of rotational energy" provision would allow to recover part of the heat of the exhaust gases that otherwise would be lost, thus providing heat to warm up and evaporate the incoming air / liquid fuel mixture.
Provisions to use openings in the side plates such as 142 and 143 in figure 14 enabling to give access to volumes at certain moments in the vane's rotation allowing fuel injection, exposure to spark plugs, exit burned gases etc. are considered within the scope of the invention.
4.12.9 Nineth preferred embodiment, blower with vertical cross provisions
This embodiment incorporates a rectangular single vane with two of its opposite sides each connected to a telescopic bearing linear motion based version of the vane positioning means while the associated linear motions take place in parallel vertical planes. Each linear motion based vane positioning means is equipped with counterbalance means such as shown in figure 10. A support frame holds two pairs of bearings each fulfilling the role of the cylinder pair 61 and 62 shown in figure 6 having the linear motion provision connecting to the vane on one side and its counter balancing provision on the other side. On each side of the vane, a teethed wheel couples directly to a short rod means that pass through said bearings connecting provisions on both sides of the bearings. Chains link the rotations of these teethed wheels to other teethed wheel mounted near the extremities of a single long rod means positioned at a sufficient far away distance to avoid it to cause obstruction of moving parts. This long rod means enables to synchronize the motions on both sides of the blade. The chain connections will be hanging on the vertical positioned teethed wheels which is favorable with regards to the effect of gravity on a chain. Equipping the blade with end disks such as 287 in figure 28 and an enclosure according to the invention constitutes an economic blower with a potentially very high fluid displacement per revolution.
Taking a partially enclosed open loop configuration with a narrow slit enables to create a narrow sheet of moving fluid highly suitable for heat exchange applications that favor a large fluid surface area contacting a high speed fluid flow. Two such narrow slit equipped blowers positioned perpendicular to eachother can create perpendicular flows on alternate sides of a thin square or rectangular sheet separation. Stacking such sheets and alteratingly blocking access to a sheet in one of the two perpendicular directions enables to create an economic microchannel heat exchanger.
4.12.10 Tenth preferred embodiment spinning billboard
Where the invention teaches handling potentially large moving objects such as the vanes for energy conversion purposes, this tenth preferred embodiment uses the same methods and pratices for non- energy related applications having the primary goal to create safe visual motion of potentially large objects to attrack attention, such as bill board application. A preferred embodiment uses the stacked vane windmill concept shown in figure 20 hanging it indoors upside down from the ceiling of a building. The structure of poles such as the vertical poles 2015 and 2016 can now be replace by wires using gravity to maintain the integrety of the structure.
4.12.1 1 Eleventh preferred group of embodiments, watermill
This embodiment is a floating single vane turbine with cross provision and linear motion drives and is shown in figure 32 specifically subfigure 3205. It applies telescopic bearings an interrupted leg and an uninterrupted leg for the associated cross provision, shell provision sliding means and a rack and pinion provision to couple an electric generator to the linear motion. The embodiment has a gimbal provision with rotation of the support beam and a ponton structure featuring the vane or hull with a synchronized rotational freedom of the groove provision and two ponton or floating devices at the extremeties of the rack carrying leg of the cross that is perpendicular on the vane or hull. The embodiment uses sliding means as shown in figure 31, a ponton carrying triangular structure as shown in figure 30 while the hull or vane structure is shown in figure 29 and details of the rack and pinion means are shown in figure 39 and 40.

Claims

5 Claims: Claim 1: The coupling between mechanical motion and changes in the state of a fluid comprising: (Ia) means vane v contacting said fluid consisting of a predominantly flat area of material hereinafter associated with a plane p, (Ib) an axis a associated with said vane v parallel to said plane p, (Ic) a motion constrains means c imposing a pattern on the motion of vane v selected from the group consisting of: (IcI) the rotation rv of said vane v around said vane axis a where said axis a undergoes a rotation ra remaining parallel with and around a main axis m and rotation rv takes place at half the speed of rotation ra, (Ic2) where a plane nl containing said axis a is forced to contain an auxiliary axis A161 parallel to said axis a and another plane n2 also containing said vane axis a is forced to contain another auxiliary axis A262 which also is parallel to said vane axis a and the angles between plane p, nl and n2 are maintained, whereby conversion is accomplished between mechanical motion associated with motion constrains means c and changes in a fluid contacted by vane v that undergoes a pattern of motion imposed by motion constrain means c. Claim 2: Conversion as in claim 1 wherein said motion constrains means c is selected from the group consisting of: (2a) a gear based provision comprising: (2al) an external gear 31 coaxially fixed on said main axis m, (2a2) an external gear 32 connecting to vane v and coaxially connecting to said vane axis a enabling vane v to rotate around said vane axis a, (2a3) an idler gear means 33 maintained at a position where it's teeth connect both to the teeth of gear 31 and to the teeth of gear 32, whereby the ratios of the involved gears number of teeth are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra, (2b) a gear based provision comprising: (2bl) an external gear 31 coaxially fixed on said main axis m, (2b2) an internal gear 42 connecting to vane provision v, coaxially connected to said vane axis a enabling vane v to rotate around said vane axis a, where gear 42's teeth contacts gear 31 's teeth, whereby the ratios of the involved gears number of teeth are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra, (2c) a gear based provision comprising: (2cl) an external teethed wheel twl coaxially fixed on said main axis m, (2c2) an external teethed wheel tw2 connecting to vane provision v coaxially connected to said vane axis a while enabling vane v to rotate around said vane axis a, (2c3) a chain connection means providing a link between the rotation of teethed wheel twl and the rotation of teethed wheel tw2, whereby the teeth ratios of teethed wheel twl and teethed wheel tw2 are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra, (2d) a gearbox based provision comprising: (2dl) an axis b bridging the distance between parallel axis a and m, (2d2) a gearbox connecting the rotation of axis a to the rotation of axis b, (2d3) a gearbox connecting the rotation of axis m to the rotation of axis b, whereby the gear ratios are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra, (2e) a linear motion based provision comprising: (2el) two sliding provisions 63 and 64 rotating each around one of said auxiliary axis respectively 61 and 62, where rotating and sliding associated displacements take place in a plane perpendicular on the auxiliary axis, (2e2) a cross means 65 featuring two legs maintaining an angle g between them while both legs are parallel to a single plane q, (2e3) connecting vane v to cross means 65 keeping vane v's associated plane p perpendicular to said plane q, (2e4) constraining each of the sliding provisions 63 and 64 to a motion along one of the legs of cross means 65, while assuring uninterrupted smooth motion, whereby said sliding provisions rotating around said auxiliary axis constrained to sliding motions along the legs of said cross means accomplishes a motion of a vane v according to said pattern, (2f) a combined linear and rotational motion based provision comprising: (2fl) rotating means 72 connected to vane v while rotating coaxial with vane axis a, (2f2) rotating means 71 rotating coaxially with main axis m while holding rotating means 72 keeping the rotational axis of both rotational means parallel with an offset o, (2f3) slot means 74 connected to rotating means 72 in a plane perpendicular on means 72's rotational axis, (2f4) pin means 73 providing a fixed point constraining the motion of slot means 74 to a linear motion along the length of said slot means 74, whereby said pin forcing said slot to a sliding motion while rotating makes connected vane v undergo a motion according to said pattern, whereby said vane motion constraining means constrains vane means v motion to said pattern p. Claim 3: Conversion as in claim 1 wherein energy is coupled to said mechanical motion comprising coupling means k selected from the group consisting of: (3a) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that rotate around said main axis m, (3b) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that rotate around a said auxiliary axis, (3c) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion, (3d) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion by using a rack and pinion type of means, (3e) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion by using a chain and teethed wheel type of means, (3f) coupling to parts of the vane motion constraining means that undergo linear motion using a coupling fluid, whereby the coupling means link energy to claim l 's conversion between mechanical motion and energy associated with change in the state of a fluid. Claim 4: Conversion according to claim 1 further including smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means selected from the group consisting of: (4a) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies based on symmetry of construction where rotating assemblies are configured as interconnected subassemblies such that imbalances arising from displacing parts of one subassembly will be balanced by a compensating displacement of other subassembly, (4b) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies based on multiple vanes and spreading out parts of associated rotating assemblies evenly over a full circle, (4c) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking sets of rotating assemblies in different phases of their motion pattern creating an overall balanced center of mass, (4d) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking single vanes v along their associated main axis where neighboring vanes are at a 90 degrees angle, (4e) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on balancing the distribution of mass of the moving parts with an appropriate distribution of mass of non moving parts, (4f) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on balancing the distribution of mass of the moving parts associated with vane v and its constrains mean c, with an appropriate distribution of mass of moving parts not associated with vane v and its constrains mean c, whereby stress exercised on the containing structure is reduced by keeping the position of the overall center of mass fixed. Claim 5: Conversion as claim 1 further including an enclosing provision y that partially contains a quantity of said fluid and undergoes a change in shape during the motion of vane v enabling to deal with changes in state of an isolated quantity of said fluid comprising: (5a) enclosing provision y consisting of: (5al) said vane v having a rectangular shape while vane axis a is a symmetry axis of vane v parallel to a side s of the rectangle shape, (5a2) enclosure wall h tightly fitting part of the path described by said side s of vane v, (5a3) side q of vane v perpendicular to vane axis a being in a tight fit arrangement selected from the group consisting of: (Sa3a) provisions keeping side q in close proximity to a surface not participating in vane v's motion, (5a3b) a flat surface provision z sealingly attached to side q while provision z participates in vane v's motion keeping the flat surface of provision z in close proximity with the rim of wall h, (5b) where said quantity of fluid is part of a fluid moving system selected from the group consisting of: (5bl) a closed loop of fluid where fluid in said enclosing means y passes through the slit opening between the tip of enclosure wall h and vane v's surface upon reaching its smallest volume, (5b2) an open circuit of fluid where parts of enclosing means y remain open enabling, on the one hand, fluid to enter from the outside into said containing volume where it is expanding and, on the other hand, fluid to exit where said containing volume is contracting, whereby the motion of vane v being part of enclosing means y corresponds with volume changes of an isolated quantity of fluid undergoing displacement in the context of said fluid moving system. Claim 6: Conversion according to claim 2 wherein energy is coupled to said mechanical motion comprising coupling means k selected from the group consisting of: (6a) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that rotate around said main axis m, (6b) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that rotate around a said auxiliary axis, (6c) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion, (6d) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion by using a rack and pinion type of means, (6e) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion by using a chain and teethed wheel type of means, (6f) coupling to parts of the vane motion constraining means that undergo linear motion using a coupling fluid, whereby the coupling means link energy to claim 2's conversion between mechanical motion and energy associated with change in the state of a fluid. Claim 7: Conversion according to claim 2 further including smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means selected from the group consisting of: (7a) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies based on symmetry of construction where rotating assemblies are configured as interconnected pairs such that imbalances arising from displacing parts of one assembly will be balanced by a compensating displacement of the other assembly, (7b) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies based on multiple vanes and spreading out parts of associated rotating assemblies evenly over a full circle, (7c) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking sets of rotating assemblies in different phases of their motion pattern creating an overall balanced center of mass, (7d) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking single vanes v along their associated main axis where neighboring vanes are at a 90 degrees angle, (7e) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on balancing the distribution of mass of the moving parts with an appropriate distribution of mass of non moving parts, (7f) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on balancing the distribution of mass of the moving parts associated with vane v and its constrains mean c, with an appropriate distribution of mass of moving parts not associated with vane v and its constrains mean c, whereby stress exercised on the containing structure is reduced by keeping the position of the overall center of mass fixed. Claim 8: Conversion according to claim 2 further including an enclosing provision y partially contains a quantity of said fluid and undergoes a change in shape during the motion of vane v enabling to deal with changes in state of an isolated quantity of said fluid comprising: (8a) enclosing provision y consisting of: (8al) said vane v having a rectangular shape while vane axis a is a symmetry axis of vane v parallel to a side s of the rectangle shape, (8a2) enclosure wall h tightly fitting part of the path described by said side s of vane v, (8a3) side q of vane v perpendicular to vane axis a being in a tight fit arrangement selected from the group consisting of: (8a3a) provisions keeping side q in close proximity to a surface not participating in vane v's motion, (8a3b) a flat surface provision z sealingly attached to side q while provision z participates in vane v's motion keeping the flat surface of provision z in close proximity with the rim of wall h, (8b) where said quantity of fluid is part of a fluid moving system selected from the group consisting of: (8bl) a closed loop of fluid where fluid in said enclosing means y passes through the slit opening between the tip of enclosure wall h and vane v's surface upon reaching its smallest volume, (8b2) an open circuit of fluid where parts of enclosing means y remain open enabling, on the one hand, fluid to enter from the outside into said containing volume where it is expanding and, on the other hand, fluid to exit where said containing volume is contracting, whereby the motion of vane v being part of enclosing means y corresponds with volume changes of an isolated quantity of fluid undergoing displacement in the context of said fluid moving system. Claim 9: Conversion according to claim 3 further including smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means selected from the group consisting of: (9a) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies based on symmetry of construction where rotating assemblies are configured as interconnected pairs such that imbalances arising from displacing parts of one assembly will be balanced by a compensating displacement of the other assembly, (9b) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies based on multiple vanes and spreading out parts of associated rotating assemblies evenly over a full circle, (9c) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking sets of rotating assemblies in different phases of their motion pattern creating an overall balanced center of mass, (9d) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking single vanes v along their associated main axis where neighboring vanes are at a 90 degrees angle, (9e) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on balancing the distribution of mass of the moving parts with an appropriate distribution of mass of non moving parts, (9f) moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on balancing the distribution of mass of the moving parts associated with vane v and its constrains mean c, with an appropriate distribution of mass of moving parts not associated with vane v and its constrains mean c, whereby stress exercised on the containing structure is reduced by keeping the position of the overall center of mass fixed. Claim 10: Conversion according to claim 3 further including an enclosing provision y partially contains a quantity of said fluid and undergoes a change in shape during the motion of vane v enabling to deal with changes in state of an isolated quantity of said fluid comprising: (10a) enclosing provision y consisting of: (lOal) said vane v having a rectangular shape while vane axis a is a symmetry axis of vane v parallel to a side s of the rectangle shape, (10a2) enclosure wall h tightly fitting part of the path described by said side s of vane v, (10a3) side q of vane v perpendicular to vane axis a being in a tight fit arrangement selected from the group consisting of: (10a3a) provisions keeping side q in close proximity to a surface not participating in vane v's motion, (10a3b) a fiat surface provision z sealingly attached to side q while provision z participates in vane v's motion keeping the flat surface of provision z in close proximity with the rim of wall h, (10b) where said quantity of fluid is part of a fluid moving system selected from the group consisting of: (lObl) a closed loop of fluid where fluid in said enclosing means y passes through the slit opening between the tip of enclosure wall h and vane v's surface upon reaching its smallest volume, (10b2) an open circuit of fluid where parts of enclosing means y remain open enabling, on the one hand, fluid to enter from the outside into said containing volume where it is expanding and, on the other hand, fluid to exit where said containing volume is contracting, whereby the motion of vane v being part of enclosing means y corresponds with volume changes of an isolated quantity of fluid undergoing displacement in the context of said fluid moving system. Claim 11 : Conversion according to claim 4 further including an enclosing provision y partially contains a quantity of said fluid and undergoes a change in shape during the motion of vane v enabling to deal with changes in state of an isolated quantity of said fluid comprising: (1 Ia) enclosing provision y consisting of: (Hal) said vane v having a rectangular shape while vane axis a is a symmetry axis of vane v parallel to a side s of the rectangle shape, (Ila2) enclosure wall h tightly fitting part of the path described by said side s of vane v, (1 Ia3) side q of vane v perpendicular to vane axis a being in a tight fit arrangement selected from the group consisting of: (Ha3a) provisions keeping side q in close proximity to a surface not participating in vane v's motion, (I la3b) a flat surface provision z sealingly attached to side q while provision z participates in vane v's motion keeping the flat surface of provision z in close proximity with the rim of wall h, (l ib) where said quantity of fluid is part of a fluid moving system selected from the group consisting of: (1 I bI) a closed loop of fluid where fluid in said enclosing means y passes through the slit opening between the tip of enclosure wall h and vane v's surface upon reaching its smallest volume, (I lb2) an open circuit of fluid where parts of enclosing means y remain open enabling, on the one hand, fluid to enter from the outside into said containing volume where it is expanding and, on the other hand, fluid to exit where said containing volume is contracting, whereby the motion of vane v being part of enclosing means y corresponds with volume changes of an isolated quantity of fluid undergoing displacement in the context of said fluid moving system. Claim 12: Conversion according to claim 1 further including smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means consisting of having vane v floating in said fluid whereby forces on said motion constrains means c associated with supporting the weight of moving parts is reduced. Claim 13: Conversion according to claim 1 further including uninterrupted rotation means based on the conservation of rotational momentum to assist pushing vane v through the point in the cycle where vane v moves counter the contacted fluid's flow direction. Claim 14: Conversion according to claim 1 further including yaw provisions setting said motion constrains means c to a direction of the fluid stream where said yaw provision is selected from the group consisting of: (14a) rotating gear around the main axis m, (14b) rotating the main axis m itself, (14c) varying the angle between vane v's plane p while maintaining the angle between plane nl and n2, (14d) varying the phase of rotation rv that rotates vane v around said vane axis a, (14e) changing direction of line connecting auxiliary axis A161 and A162, (14f) changing angle between plane nl and n2 while maintaining the angle between plane p with one of these two planes, (14g) orienting the overall structure coupling between mechanical motion and changes in the state of a fluid in the direction of a fluid stream. Claim 15: Power electronics means converting between electricity associated with a varying speed of rotation mechanical/electrical device q, such as a motor or generator, and a stable electrical device z, such as a stable voltage source or load, comprising: a varying DC voltage W associated with device q, a multitude of electrical capacities, a multitude of electronic switches arranging part of said electrical capacities in series connecting to said varying DC voltage VV so that each of such arranged individual capacities will have a voltage differential around a predetermined voltage Vl, provision controlling part of said electronic switches to rearranged capacities in parallel when capacities have a voltage differential around a predetermined voltage V2, provision connecting said capacities rearranged in parallel to said stable electrical device z. whereby ongoing rearrangement between series and parallel switched capacities enables to convert between electricity associated with a varying speed of rotation mechanical/electrical device and electricity associated with a stable electrical device. Claim 16: Coupling according to claim 1 where the state change accomplished in said fluid is selected from the group consisting of: (16a) a change in the state of motion of a liquid, such as water, (16b) a change in the state of motion of a gas, such as air, (16c) a change in the state of temperature, (16d) a change in the state of pressure, (16e) a change in the state of molecular composition, such as accomplished burning a fuel oxidant mixture, (16f) a change in the physical phase, such as liquid to gas or gas to liquid, (16g) a change in the chemical state, such as its salinity. Claim 17: Energy conversion according to claim 3 comprising: said state of a fluid being its state of motion, said fluid being air, said imposed pattern according to section IcI of claim 1, said motion constrains means c comprising: (1) two sliding provisions 63 and 64 rotating each around one of said auxiliary axis respectively 61 and 62, where rotating and sliding associated displacements take place in a plane perpendicular on the auxiliary axis, (2) a cross means 65 featuring two legs maintaining an angle g between them while both legs are parallel to a single plane q, (3) connecting vane v to cross means 65 keeping vane v's associated plane p perpendicular to said plane q, (4) constraining each of the sliding provisions 63 and 64 to a motion along one of the legs of cross means 65, while assuring uninterrupted smooth motion, whereby said sliding provisions rotating around said auxiliary axis constrained to sliding motions along the legs of said cross means accomplishes a motion of a vane v according to said pattern, said coupling means according to section 3c of claim 3, smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means consist of moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on stacking single vanes v along their associated main axis where neighboring vanes are at a 90 degrees angle, whereby energy conversion from wind energy into energy associated with mechanical rotational energy is accomplished. Claim 18: Energy conversion according to claim 3 extracting energy from a liquid stream comprising:
(1) said state of a fluid being its state of motion,
(2) said fluid being water,
(3) said imposed pattern being in accordance with section Ic2 of claim 1,
(4) said motion constrains means c comprising:
(4a) two sliding provisions 63 and 64 rotating each around one of said auxiliary axis respectively 61 and 62, where rotating and sliding associated displacements take place in a plane perpendicular on the auxiliary axis, (4b) a cross means 65 featuring two legs maintaining an angle g between them while both legs are parallel to a single plane q, (4c) connecting vane v to cross means 65 keeping vane v's associated plane p perpendicular to said plane q, (4d) constraining each of the sliding provisions 63 and 64 to a motion along one of the legs of cross means 65, while assuring uninterrupted smooth motion, whereby said sliding provisions rotating around said auxiliary axis constrained to sliding motions along the legs of said cross means accomplishes a motion of a vane v according to said pattern,
(5) said coupling means being selected from the group consisting of:
(5a) claim 3's section 3c, (5b) claim 3's section 3d,
(6) smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means consisting of having vane v floating in said fluid whereby forces on said motion constrains means c associated with supporting the weight of moving parts is reduced,
(7) uninterrupted rotation means based on the conservation of rotational momentum to assist pushing vane v through the point in the cycle where vane v goes counter the contacted fluid's flow direction, whereby energy conversion between energy associated with moving water and energy associated with mechanical rotational energy is accomplished contacting the water with said vane v that is constrained to undergo a said pattern resulting in linear motion along a leg of said cross of a slider provision that is coupled to rotational motion through said coupling means.
Claim 19:
Energy conversion according to claim 3 generating a flowing stream of fluid comprising:
(a) said imposed pattern according to section IcI of claim 1,
(b) said motion constrains means c is gear based comprising: (bl) an external gear 31 coaxially fixed on said main axis m,
(b2) an external gear 32 connecting to vane v and coaxially connecting to said vane axis a enabling vane v to rotate around said vane axis a, (b3) an idler gear means 33 maintained at a position where it's teeth connect both to the teeth of gear 31 and to the teeth of gear 32, whereby the ratios of the involved gears number of teeth are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra,
(c) said coupling means according to section 3a of claim 3,
(d) smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means consist of moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on counter balancing distributing mass passive, whereby stress exercised on the containing structure is reduced,
(e) where an enclosing provision y partially contains a quantity of said fluid and undergoes a change in shape during the motion of vane v enabling to handle changes in state of an isolated quantity of said fluid comprising:
(el) enclosing provision y consisting of:
(el a) said vane v having a rectangular shape while vane axis a is a symmetry axis of vane v parallel to a side s of the rectangle shape, (elb) enclosure wall h tightly fitting part of the path described by said side s of vane v,
(elc) side q of vane v perpendicular to vane axis a being in a tight fit arrangement selected from the group consisting of: (elcl) provisions keeping side q in close proximity to a surface not participating in vane v's motion,
(elc2) a flat surface provision z sealingly attached to side q while provision z participates in vane v's motion keeping the flat surface of provision z in close proximity with the rim of wall h,
(e2) where said quantity of said fluid is part of a fluid moving system representing an open circuit of fluid where parts of enclosing means y remain open enabling, on the one hand, fluid to enter from the outside into said containing volume where it is expanding and, on the other hand, fluid to exit where said containing volume is contracting, whereby the motion of vane v being part of enclosing means y corresponds with volume changes of an isolated quantity of fluid undergoing displacement in the context of said fluid moving system, whereby energy associated with mechanical rotational energy is converted in energy associated with a flowing stream of fluid by imposing said pattern on the motion of said vane while said enclosing provision enables to handle changes in the state of isolated quantities of fluid.
Claim 20:
Energy conversion according to claim 3 generating a transport of heat comprising:
(a) said changes in the state of said fluid correspond to changes in said fluid's temperature,
(b) said imposed pattern according to section IcI of claim 1,
(c) said motion constrains means c is gear based comprising: (cl) an external gear 31 coaxially fixed on said main axis m,
(c2) an external gear 32 connecting to vane v and coaxially connecting to said vane axis a enabling vane v to rotate around said vane axis a, (c3) an idler gear means 33 maintained at a position where it's teeth connect both to the teeth of gear 31 and to the teeth of gear 32, whereby the ratios of the involved gears number of teeth are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra,
(d) said coupling means according to section 3a of claim 3,
(e) smooth, vibrating-free rotation providing means consist of moving assemblies' center of mass balancing based on counter balancing distributing mass passive, whereby stress exercised on the containing structure is reduced,
(f) where an enclosing provision y partially contains a quantity of said fluid and undergoes a change in shape during the motion of vane v enabling to handle changes in state of an isolated quantity of said fluid comprising:
(fl) enclosing provision y consisting of:
(fla) said vane v having a rectangular shape while vane axis a is a symmetry axis of vane v parallel to a side s of the rectangle shape,
(fib) enclosure wall h tightly fitting part of the path described by said side s of vane v,
(flc) side q of vane v perpendicular to vane axis a being in a tight fit arrangement selected from the group consisting of: (flcl) provisions keeping side q in close proximity to a surface not participating in vane v's motion,
(fic2) a flat surface provision z sealingly attached to side q while provision z participates in vane v's motion keeping the flat surface of provision z in close proximity with the rim of wall h,
(f2) a closed loop of fluid where fluid in said enclosing means y passes through the slit opening between the tip of enclosure wall h and vane v's surface upon reaching its smallest volume, whereby the motion of vane v being part of enclosing means y corresponds with volume changes of an isolated quantity of fluid undergoing displacement in the context of said fluid moving system, (g) means to transport heat through part of said enclosure wall h, whereby energy associated with mechanical rotational energy is converted in energy associated with a flowing stream of fluid by imposing said pattern on the motion of said vane while said enclosing provision enables to handle changes in the state of isolated quantities of fluid.
Claim 21 :
Energy conversion according to claim 3 enabling propulsion through said fluid comprising:
(a) said state of a fluid being the state of motion,
(b) said imposed pattern according to section IcI of claim 1,
(c) motion constrains means c comprising a gearbox based provision comprising:
(1) an axis b bridging the distance between parallel axis a and m,
(2) a gearbox connecting the rotation of axis a to the rotation of axis b,
(3) a gearbox connecting the rotation of axis m to the rotation of axis b, whereby the gear ratios are chosen to accomplish said rotation rv taking place at half the speed of rotation ra,
(d) said coupling means according to section 3a of claim 3,
(e) balancing the center of mass of moving assemblies is based on symmetry of construction where rotating assemblies are configured as interconnected pairs such that imbalances arising from displacing parts of one assembly will be balanced by a compensating displacement of the other assembly,
(f) a provision to generate changes in the direction of said propulsion based on rotating said main axis m, whereby mechanical rotation associated energy is converted into energy associated with changing the state of motion of the fluid enabling propulsion by generating impulse and an associated force in the opposite direction of the created change in the motion of said fluid.
Claim 22:
Energy conversion according to claim 18 extracting energy from a liquid stream comprising:
(1) telescopic bearing provisions featuring inner and outer parallel boundaries,
(2) said sliding provisions 63 and 64 to provide said outer parallel boundaries,
(3) said legs of said cross means 65 to provide said inner parallel boundaries,
(4) a gimbal with rotation provision providing additional degrees of freedom to one of the sliding provisions,
(5) means allowing rotational freedom along the length axis of a leg of the means holding said inner parallel boundaries,
(6) an uninterrupted rack and pinion provision maintaining the proper distance by bearings on the axis of the electricity generating means, whereby flexibility is provided to adapt to forces of wind, waves and water to energy conversion according to claim 18.
Claim 23:
The generation of a motion pattern of a visual message comprising:
(a) means vane v containing said visual message consisting of a predominantly flat area of material hereinafter associated with a plane p,
(b) an axis a associated with said vane v parallel to said plane p,
(c) a motion constrains means c imposing a pattern on the motion of vane v selected from the group consisting of:
(1) the rotation rv of said vane v around said vane axis a where said axis a undergoes a rotation ra remaining parallel with and around a main axis m and rotation rv takes place at half the speed of rotation ra,
(2) where a plane nl containing said axis a is forced to contain an auxiliary axis A161 parallel to said axis a and another plane n2 also containing said vane axis a is forced to contain another auxiliary axis A262 which also is parallel to said vane axis a and the angles between plane p, nl and n2 are maintained, whereby driving mechanical energy is coupled into the motion constrains means c resulting in the generation of the corresponding motion pattern.
Claim 24:
Motion pattern generation as in claim 23 wherein said motion constrains means c consists of a linear motion based provision comprising:
(1) two sliding provisions 63 and 64 rotating each around one of said auxiliary axis respectively 61 and 62, where rotating and sliding associated displacements take place in a plane perpendicular on the auxiliary axis,
(2) a cross means 65 featuring two legs maintaining an angle g between them while both legs are parallel to a single plane q,
(3) connecting vane v to cross means 65 keeping vane v's associated plane p perpendicular to said plane q,
(4) constraining each of the sliding provisions 63 and 64 to a motion along one of the legs of cross means 65, while assuring uninterrupted smooth motion, whereby said sliding provisions rotating around said auxiliary axis constrained to sliding motions along the legs of said cross means accomplishes a motion of a vane v according to said pattern,
Claim 25:
Motion pattern generation as in claim 23 wherein said coupling of driving mechanical energy comprises coupling means k selected from the group consisting of:
(a) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that rotate around said main axis m,
(b) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that rotate around a said auxiliary axis,
(c) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion,
(d) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion by using a rack and pinion type of means,
(e) coupling to parts of said vane v motion constraining means c that undergo linear motion by using a chain and teethed wheel type of means,
(f) coupling to parts of the vane motion constraining means that undergo linear motion using a coupling fluid, whereby coupling in driving mechanical energy through coupling means k accomplishes the generation of said motion pattern.
PCT/US2008/004334 2007-04-05 2008-04-03 Energy conversion to or from rotational motion WO2008124028A1 (en)

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